Speak up for your rights and you'll be served with lathis: BHU senior research fellow on crackdown
The simmering protests have kindled a major crisis at the prestigious Banaras Hindu University (BHU), where women students agitating over the molestation of a student on campus were allegedly beaten up by the police on September 24.
While the university will remain shut until October 2, the vice-chancellor, Girish Chandra Tripathi, has formed a high-level committee to review the state of security inside the university premises.
The unfortunate incident happened on September 21, when a female student of fine arts was allegedly molested on campus while returning to her hostel. When the student approached the security guards for help, they, instead of helping the victim, advised her that "she should not come out of the hostel during night hours".
The incident happened a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Varanasi. During his visit, protests were going on in full swing in the Lanka area and the central security agencies had to change the route of the PM’s cavalcade.
September 23, violence erupted after some students, protesting against the molestation incident, wanted to meet the vice-chancellor at his residence at night, according to the police and BHU sources.
They have also claimed that security guards of the university stopped the students and informed the police. A BHU spokesperson has claimed that students wanted to "forcibly" enter the VC's residence but they were stopped by the security guards.
Subsequently, there was stone-pelting by "outsiders" who had joined the students, he has alleged.
The police baton-charged the students in a bid to disperse them. A few students and journalists were injured during the violence.
The entire episode raises a barrage of questions over the university's response.
Why did the BHU security fail to respond properly when the incident took place?
Was it lack of training or plain laxity? BHU has a huge 1,360-acre campus and it is the responsibility of the proctorial board of the BHU to identify the relatively dark routes and ensure general security in such areas. There have been several clashes between the students, teachers and the proctorial board in the past as well, something that has become a common occurrence now. So, why were the university authorities and the proctorial board not proactive?
Anybody who is familiar with the working style of the proctorial board of the BHU knows how easily they resort to lathicharge on students.
Speak up for your rights and the BHU proctorial board will serve you with university-sponsored "lathis". There are many teachers who have gained notoriety for this attitude after becoming part of the BHU proctorial board.
The proctorial board has its intelligence unit that has failed miserably, almost every time crisis hit the university. The demands of BHU students were quite genuine. Providing CCTVs (that are not installed adequately on the campus) cannot be the only solution to the problem faced by the students, it requires a correct "mindset" and "approach" of the proctorial board and its staff.
Lathicharge on students has become some sort of standard operating procedure of the controversial BHU proctorial board (former chief proctors like HCS Rathore, who is now serving as VC of another university, and Onkar Singh were even accused of murders).
While the PMO appears to have taken the "molestation" incident seriously and has sought an inquiry report, the BHU vice-chancellor, while talking in an over enthusiastic manner to an English news channel, termed it as "simple eve-teasing".
Various national-level student unions have demanded the resignation of the BHU VC, besides seeking the Ministry of Human Resource Development's intervention in the matter. So far, the BHU VC has taken "the moral responsibility" and assured that security of students will be taken more seriously.
UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath has sought a report from Nitin Ramesh Gokaran, the commissioner of Varanasi division. While the investigation is on, there are several other concerns.
Is it enough to order inquiries? What about the VC's role? Has he taken any sincere efforts?
The communication between the BHU administration and the Varanasi police should be made public. The BHU VC tried to pass off an incident of "molestation" as "general eve-teasing". What made him categorise the incident in this manner?
Most importantly, why were women students lathi-charged? And who will be held responsible for such action? Why were no lady police officer present?
As per BHU chief proctor (who maintains that there was no lathi-charge on the female students), the police acted in self-defence. If so, what was the self-defence mechanism that police followed?
Was it actually the police that acted in "self-defence" and chased the students with their lathis, or was it the security personnel of the BHU proctorial board who appeared in police-like uniforms?
Why were journalists covering the protest beaten up by the police (a few journalists who were injured didn't get timely treatment)? What were UP police and SPG personnel doing and how come they were not aware of the presence of "outsiders" and "petrol bombers" during the PM’s visit?
Who really conspired and tried to defame, as some people are alleging, the prestigious university during the PM’s visit to Varanasi? Was there any involvement of the communist cadres in the protest?
These are the questions that need to be answered by the BHU authorities, the district administration, the government of Uttar Pradesh and, of course, the Centre.