Saturday, July 01, 2006

Law Makers And Breakers-NSUI

Trial by media was a bad enough phenomenon. Now it is the National Students Union of India which has anointed itself the custodian of peoples rights and a body to rectify wrongs..A situation not easily digestible.

Prof. Vilas Athawale of the reputed Wilson College had to face the wrath of students, have his face blackened, a 'garland' of chappals around his neck, and then paraded thus to the nearest Police station. Cause? An alleged molestation of a student almost a year back!! As if this is not reason to raise ones eyebrows at the sequence of events, the media was informed and had therefore thronged the college precincts in all its force, ready with cameras and scribes, to capture the gherao of the Biology Professor.

A sea of questions.. Why now, almost a year later? The professor was in charge of admissions and quota reservations..a possible fallout of students denied admission? Why did the NSUI resort to this almost barabaric act without a serious effort to judiciously settle the matter( the case is sub judice while the parents reportedly have agreed that there was no harassment) or in fact permitting the concerned authorities to mediate?

If the man is guilty, then law should have been allowed to take its course, especially in the circumstance when no further complaint necessitated the aggravation to this degree.

If he is innocent, then a gross violation of Human rights has occurred here. He is due to retire next year. A lifetime of deication and perseverence at bringing up generation after generation of kids and imbuing them with knowledge deserved merit and recognition. A hypotheticl dialogue would ensue thus:

"So what?!!..Guru..Respect..Deference..Haah!! We know better..Freaked out ideologies..Gimme a break...The guy is loony..Who can stop us from voicing our opinions... we know our rights.. We will punish those we think guilty.."

The fact that he is a senior professor, who has a multitude of students, parents and members of the faculty willing to back him and proclaim him innocent, is telling enough. Some even go to the extent of stating that he was a bachelor who had sacrificed his life for social welfare.

The professor was later released on bail after the college authorities and other supporters of the Professor collected at the police station to protest against the alleged ploy to malign him.

"Students unions have become like a mafia. If they can't have their way, they resort to force and coercion. They enter colleges without permission of principals and create trouble. The government must curb this dadagiri, otherwise the unions might get bolder," Dr Sirwaiya, Principal of wilson college said, adding that the college had decided to discontinue classes till action was taken against the NSUI.

As happens most often in such cases, truth lies hidden under feelings of embarassment or shame, while lies finds backers who worship at the altar of anarchy then encouraged and emboldened with multitudinous support raise hell in an effort to stymie the 'decent lawful' efforts of truth to vocalise its claim .

But truth prevails... Question is WHEN? Wont it be too late then? Are the students union not crossing all borders of ethical, moral and legitimate behaviour? What is the future of a country where misguided youth have been permitted to take law, manipulate it, probably being manipulated themselves by vested interests and playing cluelessly into the hands of those to whom human life and dignity holds little or no value when compared with the gourmand appeal of success!! Has education served the purpose it intrinsically denotes? Or is creating an uproar a fashion statement of the 'truly liberated'?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Of couse we have the right to punish anyone we think guilty!! whats wrong with athat?? thank god we have organisations like nsui.nobody can act smart and get away with it.we are the watchdogs and we will watch over dogs..you have a problem???

Chameleon's Karma said...

It would be interesting to find out how many of these NSUI thugs were actual students and how many were 'ex-students'!
The students unions have become so politicised that its scary - NSUI is the student wing of Congress. I don't know about Bombay, but the expenditure on Delhi University Students Union elections runs into crores with all the major political parties - Congress (NSUI), BJP (ABVP) and the Left (SFI) participating as if these were parliamentary elections. Wannabe student leaders deliberately fail in the exams so that they can stand again and again for the Union elections.

Kaveetaa Kaul said...

Apparently, there were about 50 Nsui activists, masquerading as students. They had been insisting on a quota reservation for their students, a demand which had been disallowed by Prof. Athavale. So this was their modus operandi to get even. It is indeed brave of the Principal to have taken on a hard stand against this holiganism and in favour of the Professor who it is almost validated had been falsely implicated by the girl student.. where will such arm twisting tactics eventually lead to!

Anonymous said...

Feeling cornered the nsui guys got another girl to pose as a victim of prof. athavale...its very obvious that it is rubbish.Where was he all this while? now that the first incident has lost its bite, the union hoodlums bring on another. it is true that the nsui bully principals of colleges into granting seats for them under the management quota to see that they have their representatives in all colleges. students who go to them for help have to pay the price..it is nothing short of a student mafia organisation. In smaller tons it was so rampant. In mumbai the activities were lesser known.

Kaveetaa Kaul said...

One cannot say whether or not the activities of the NSUI should be arrested altogether. There may be genuine cases of harassment faced by students which cannot be ruled out. This is a catch 22 situation..its like calling in the friendly ghost, you have to take him along with the curse he brings in. All the same if it atleast puts a comma to their hooliganism if not a full stop, then the efforts of the Principal may not have gone unheeded. There is so much which is mysterious that to take on sides blatanly is an issue by itself..therefore the need to let law takes its course.

der Bergwind said...

the law- law makers, law seekers, law breakers, law protectorz... india is a diverse country where people are expert at 'multi-tasking'!! n so we have a wonderful, colourful babble wit the 'poor blind lady'!

education is all abt hopping from the school2college2uni n then grabbin the cherry which pays u green backs, nowadayz even indian currency has taken the bac seat!

unions are there wit the political colours for much needed muscle during election fan fare, media gimmicks; everthing other than student 'well fare' ( ya, separate wordz!)

n liberated souls like me.. ya, like me, only plot ways n means to save this land, change the system but lo! nothing ever changes...
respect, ethics n all do they teach those in the kindergarten? all we need is a handful of money for a smooth life!! as in the james dond movie... " don ask.. don tell" the answer to all ur questionz.. :)

ps: liberated soul is one like me, all gyan stuffed inside but too lazy to do a la rang de basanti.. but sorry.. this system is not worth dying for!!

Anonymous said...

Prof. Athawale deserved this punishment for raping a female student.

I am congratulating NSU(I) activists.

Welldone boys! You won where our judiciary failed!

I can't understand why Shiv Sena supporting pro-UK Wilson College. If necessary, State Govt should take over this college and raname it to Rajiv Gandhi College. We should not allow any college in India having a UK name.


Regards,

Riva T Philip

Kaveetaa Kaul said...

hey der,

know where u r coming from..

N i dont confer with the rdb jingo..to present a problem without bothering with a practical n viable solution was not my idea of good film making..

all the same.. to feel concerned is all we can do as of now, besides not co
operating or encouraging hoooliganism.

Riva,

I guess you and the previous anonymous are form the same club.

I have not heard the mention of 'rape' with reference to this episode. If there genuinely was a case of molestation, then dont you think that the law and order machinery of the state should have been trusted..dont forget Sunil more was prosecuted.. justice would have prevailed here too.

der Bergwind said...

@ kavita...

i din get u.. by know where u r coming from?
btw.. rdb is never a wow-wow movie for me.. ya, impractical.. still wit all the ruthless law-making n breaking around, i guess the path of law wud be difficult to tread.. n is it really imp. the path taken, or is the result achieved tatz important?
with so many arteries n venules of diversity, india has multi pronged probz n its difficult to keep it fair.. nonetheless, for me, change is important.. the hard way or the soft.. logically no point weighing.

n rdb was a colourful movie naa? again 'juice is worth the squeeze'.. happy price menu, 80 buckz- paisa vasul:)
lifez kinda precious naa, why let a movie gimme sum 'crubs for thought'... :)

Kaveetaa Kaul said...

lol..der

'know where u r coming from ' is lingo for 'I get your point'..or I know what your take is on the issue etc.

rdb was paisa vasool definitely. Only contention was that a film made on the scale and with intelligent makers n stars and stirring up an issue of the kind then .. it was incumbent to have dramatised a viable solution , even if hypothetically.. ofcourse.. but then agagin twas only a film:)