Events at BHU should be a moment for both students & authorities to reflect on their actions
There can be no excuse for male policemen chasing female students and using disproportionate amounts of violence on them. Seeing the videos of armed paramilitary jawans in the Kashmir valley keeping their calm despite being spat on, will make one wonder, what insult could have led these boorish policemen to do what they did. The events of Saturday evening at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) are shameful and the State authorities must take action against the policemen and officers responsible for the event. If investigations find them guilty, the policemen should not be merely suspended but drummed out of the police force. For, prima facie, they are unfit to keep order. This incident speaks poorly of the Uttar Pradesh police but was almost expected in a country where society and mass entertainment have normalised police brutality. That said, the students should also have known that any raucous protest would have invited wrath of the authorities. It is a fact that female students staying in campus hostels across India have to endure extremely restricted and harsh conditions, it is also true that this is for their personal safety. It is the fault of the State that they cannot guarantee the safety of women, once darkness envelops the land. There is little or no fear of punishment by those who assault women, and that is a systemic problem in India that needs to be fixed through judicial reform. Women students rightly believe that they are adults and have complete freedom to do what they please as all young adults do. But campus authorities are scared of what would happen in case there is an assault, and this speaks very sadly of India, which seems inevitable. As a result, authorities play rather safe than sorry and lock female students up under extremely restrictive rules.
While students have the right to protest and should protest any unfair crackdown, they should also work together with campus authorities to come to reasonable solutions. The actions of students at the BHU and across several other campuses across the country, where they look at the campus authorities from the vice-chancellor downwards as ideological enemies, has led to people being trapped by students and it is only a matter of time if tempers are not cooled down before there is a fatality. The authorities and students should work together towards ensuring peace on campuses because for every politically charged student, there may be 10 who just want to study. In a country with an already troubled higher education system, highly politicised campuses will lead to even more educationally unfit youth joining the job market. As for women’s safety on campuses, campus authorities across the world should, like campuses abroad, work towards keeping more substantive campus policemen, whose role would be to keep peace and quiet on the campus. Women students should be made aware of the dangers around them but also be allowed more freedom of movement. In addition, the recent incident highlights the fact that the most urgently needed reforms in India are reforms to the justice system, both for implementation of peace and dispensation of justice.