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Members from the Tamil Nadu Nursery, Primary and Matriculation Schools Association protest against denial of bail to AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa at DPI campus in Chennai. (TOI photo)

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TIMES VIEW

CHENNAI/COIMBATORE: Colleges affiliated to Anna University and schools have dragged students into the protests over the conviction of chief minister J Jayalalithaa in the disproportionate assets case by declaring Tuesday a holiday to show solidarity with the AIADMK supremo.The Federation of Associations of Private Schools in Tamil Nadu first made the announcement on Sunday morning, declaring a holiday on October 7, a day when the Karnataka high court will hear Jayalalithaa's bail plea. The Association of Management Colleges Affiliated to Anna University followed suit later in the day, which will result in more than 500 engineering colleges in the state also staying closed on Tuesday.More than 12,000 private schools including CBSE, nursery and primary schools in the state will stay shut on Tuesday.The decision shocked academics, parents and opposition parties. They said schools and colleges had hijacked the interests of students to further a political agenda and forced them to take sides on an issue that has nothing to do with education.Tamil Nadu Private Schools Association president R Visalakshi, however, denied that political pressure prompted the move. "Jayalalithaa was the chief minister of our state," she said. "Private school management decided that it is our duty to express our grief at her conviction."The argument did not convince the critics, who said school and college managements had no business to drag students into a political controversy at the expense of a day that they could have spent profitably in the classroom.Asking the school education department to declare the holiday announcement illegal, State Platform for Common School System general secretary P Prince Gajendra Babu said only the government could take decisions regarding school and college holidays."The Federation of Associations of Private Schools has threatened to close schools earlier too. The government should not allow any individual or group to take the law into their hands," he said.CPM alleged that the ruling party put pressure on schools and colleges. "The decision will set a bad precedent," CPM state secretary G Ramakrishnan said.AIADMK speaker Avadi Kumar denied the CPM leader's charges. "We never insisted on or instigated any protests," he said.The federation of private schools plans to use Tuesday to "condemn the judgment" by the special court in Bangalore, which on September 27 convicted Jayalalithaa in the Rs 66.65 crore disproportionate assets case, sentenced her to four years in prison and fined her a record Rs 100 crore. Members of the association said they will also use the opportunity to demand Jayalalithaa's release."We will demand that Jayalalithaa be released from the Karnataka prison for the sake of the people of Tamil Nadu," federation secretary D C Elangovan said.Schools were to reopen for the second term on Tuesday after the first term vacation and Navratri holidays. The federation did not intimate parents and students about the holiday. "Monday is a holiday for Bakrid and we believe all parents and students will be aware of the announcement by then," Elangovan said.The association does not play a major role in academic decisions of engineering colleges, the principal of a private engineering college in Coimbatore said. "But most colleges will go by the decision as many of them are controlled directly or indirectly by politicians," he said.By co-opting students to a political cause, colleges and schools have demonstrated that they have no qualms about holding the future of these children hostage to further their own ends. Their declaration of a holiday on Tuesday to show their "solidarity" with former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, convicted and imprisoned in a disproportionate assets case, is not only illegal, but is also a pointer to the rot in an education system owned and controlled in large part by politicians. The judiciary should take suo motu action against the decision, which forces students to take sides against a court verdict, and direct the government to declare the holiday illegal.