First time for JNU to deal with a ragging incident on campus. But what's the truth?

Playing Rag Tag in JNU


JNU’s witnessed its first ever ragging case, but the students who were allegedly ragged say that they weren’t ragged at all! DT speaks to all the parties involved...
MEDHA SHRI Times News Network ; 26-august-2009

>>What actually happened...

What has happened at JNU is confusing, to say the least. The authorities rusticated some students, took strict action against several others and the student community cried that ragging isn’t a part of the popular JNU culture. So, to set the record straight, DT spoke to everybody – the students who allegedly ragged, the ones who were allegedly ragged and the authorities.

Mahesh Giri, who has been rusticated says, “It was a Wednesday and on Wednesdays, we generally have seminars at 3 pm. That very morning, a junior asked me if I could guide some freshers about what happens in the seminar, and I agreed. After lunch, three of them came to my room. One of the girls was my friend’s sister and the other two were her friends. There were two guys other than me in my room – one of them had come to browse the net and the other had come to discuss GATE coaching with me. The passouts, who were also blamed, had come to take their bags from my room, which they had left behind when they vacated their hostel rooms at the end of their college term.”

Mahesh says that in Sabarmati Hostel in JNU, there is no objection to girls being in a guy’s room. Talking about why girls who were ragged were present in his room, he says, “Girls are allowed to visit boys’ rooms! The hostel has girls in one of its wings and guys in the other. My friend had given my number to his sis so that she could contact me if she needed help. And that day she was in my room with her friends because she needed some guidance.”

So, what happened next? “We were discussing something when the anti-ragging committee members knocked on the door. They came in saying that it had been reported that we were ragging students in my room. They started questioning us. My friend’s sis told them who she was, but the committee members didn’t listen to her, saying, ‘Hum apna kaam karenge. Hum jaante hain ki pichle dus din se ragging ho rahi hai yahan.’ I was shocked. I have only three months left to finish this semester, why would I want to do such a thing? Had I known, I would’ve never called them to my room.”
Mahesh adds that the committee members neither listened to the seniors nor the freshers. “All of us were asked to give our recent call details and the freshers were then taken to a separate room for questioning. When my friend’s sis said that I was her bro’s friend, one of the members said, ‘Tum bata nahi rahe ho kya ho raha tha. Humein pata hai ki tum logo ki ragging hone wali thi. Tum naye ho isliye tumhe pata nahi hai.’ The members then made those freshers write that they were being ragged. After taking the statement, they charged us with ragging the juniors, expelled us from the hostel and rusticated us for two years,” he says, adding, “And we were also charged for having ragged the students since the past 10 days. But in reality, neither one of us had spent all those ten days in the campus. The committee then issued a show cause notice (see left) to us and we were asked to submit evidence by 5 pm the next day. I attached the general body meeting’s minutes and my mess rebate as proof. The application of the freshers was also attached. All of us 19 students submitted the evidence and we learnt that we had been rusticated through media reports. It was said that we were caught red-handed! They gave the decision in half an hour and that shows that they didn’t even read the proof carefully. Aadhe ghante mein 19 logon ke proof nahi padh sakte, unhone jo socha tha wahi kiya,” he says.

Dushyant Singh, another student who got rusticated was reading a newspaper in Mahesh’s room. He says, “The anti-ragging squad didn’t listen to any of us. When Mahesh started looking for his ID, they held him by the collar and pushed him. They pulled out the wire from the computer Iqbal was surfing the net on saying, ‘Yeh dukaan hai kya?’ In the show cause notice they said we had the ‘intention’ of ragging.”

And what do the girls, who were apparently ragged have to say? “We sat in the room and were introducing ourselves when the anti-ragging squad entered. The squad misbehaved with the seniors and took us to the senior warden’s room and pressurised us to write ki ragging ho rahi thi. We wrote that we had gone to discuss the seminar. Despite that, they called it ragging! I stated in writing that Mahesh is my brother’s friend. Another student who entered after the squad had come probably succumbed to the pressure and wrote what the committee asked him to write. My friend and I were asked what we were doing in the boys’ hostel and I told them ki bhaiya hain. A female member of the squad said, ‘Ghar par bata denge’” shares one of the girls.
The rusticated students, however, are sure that their hostel will stand by them. Vijay Pal, Sabarmati Hostel president says, “We are with them. The students who were present in the room are saying that they weren’t ragged – what other evidence do they need?”

>> And the other side of the story...
Member of the anti-ragging committee, Dr Vivek Kumar says, “The law has prevailed after the first ever ragging case in the 40-year-old campus’ history. The Supreme Court considers ragging an unlawful activity and wants us to deal with it strictly. If one centre is maligning the culture of JNU, by indulging in ragging and then later revolting against the administration’s decision, I don’t think it’s right.”

When we spoke to the rector, R Kumar, and told him what one of the girls is saying, he said, “The case is closed. No new fact has come to our notice. In case there’s a grievance, students have the right to appeal and they can go to the chief proctor.”

The general students’ body thinks that rustication is fair. A PhD student of sociology, Jigyasa (name changed on request) says, “Ragging is the antithesis of what JNU symbolises – it’s not in our ethos. But it isn’t new, such incidents have happened here before. No matter how much support they (the rusticated students) try to gather, I don’t think the administration will revisit their decision.”

The vice president of JNU, Shephalika Shekhar says, “The issue is not just about the presence of girls in the boys’ hostel because Sabaramati is a co-ed hostel. Girls can move into the boys’ wing easily. The thing is that this is a ragging case, and it should be dealt with seriously.”
(With inputs from ERAM AGHA)