“They are like our sons and daughters; they are our children and it is our responsibility to take care of them” – this is what the police of India generally says. This is also what the authorities of our respective universities and colleges have to say. And also, this is exactly what we expect out of them.
But is this their reality or is it just a mask? Well, for the students of Jadavpur University, Kolkata, it definitely turned out to be a mask!
A student was dragged to the boy’s hostel and molested by seven unruly boys, while the entire university was engaged in a cultural festival. But, what was the result? What was the action which was taken by the authorities of the college?
The victim was asked to keep shut and lock herself in her house for a few weeks. Yes my friends, this is the “justice” which was given to her. But sadly, the authorities could not keep her friends and fellow class mates and the rest of the university calm, who decided to engage themselves on a peaceful protest against the authority to take proper action.
It was on the night of 18th of September that while the students were on their peaceful protest, singing and chanting slogans, that the lights were switched off (in order to prevent anyone from taking pictures or videos for the events which followed) and the students witnessed the entry of the police and many political party goons who went on to impose a merciless lathi charge on them. The students were beaten BLOODY, the girls were molested, touched and groped at inappropriate body parts, few had their clothes torn by the goons and were slanged against. 38 students were arrested (37 boys and 1 girl), 40 were hospitalized and one was in ventilation.
Our honorable chief minister Mamata Banerjee had to say “ekta choto ghotona ke boro korar dorkar nei” (you do not have to amplify a small incident)
But there is something that you should know about today’s youth and that is, they do not know how to keep calm.
After that night, the social media started flooding with updates regarding the incident. Students started organizing peaceful rallies. On the first day, the protest march consisted of around seven thousand students, on the second day around ten to fifteen thousand students. On the third day of the protest rally, the students of the university had estimated around twenty thousand participants. But they were completely shocked to know that on that particular day, the number had shot up to a lakh!
Yes, one lakh people (mostly students) were on the road, chanting slogans against our educational system where campus violence, filthy politics and injustice prevails. Our honorable chief minister Mamata Banerjee had to say “ekta choto ghotona ke boro korar dorkar nei” (you do not have to amplify a small incident). Yes, one lakh people (including film actors, directors and producers) standing up for a cause is indeed a very small incident.
Another thing which I have come across regarding this issue is that, very easily people transform a social problem into a political one. And very frankly speaking, I do not know how they do that without any proper logic. Thus, there is the presence of an opposition “party” who claim that on that very night of the incident, it was the students who had attacked the police, or had threatened the authorities, provoked them, etc. but to be very logical, apart from the people who were actually present that night, no one knows the exact happenings. So making your own grand new stories is baseless.
It’s time for the youth of India to rise. I was a part of that rally along with thousands of other people. Those “people” were none other than students like me shouting “Hok Kolorob” (let there be protest), And raising my voice against tyranny and injustice, somewhere inside, made me respect myself.
