[Reader-list] Another cause, not pink but blood red...

[Pawan Durani]

http://mohan-sinha.blogspot.com/

Here are two issues, both equally relevant when it comes to our fundamental
rights - but see how we perceive them. The first is the ‘pink chaddi’
campaign against Muthalik and the Ram Sene. The second is a campaign to end
ragging, by the family of Aman Kachroo, the student who was beaten to death
by his seniors at a medical school in Himachal Pradesh.

The ‘Pink Chaddi’ group was started on Facebook and had 50,000+ members in
less than a week. The second, ‘Justice for Aman
Kachroo<http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=56564914348#/group.php?gid=57342453306>’
has just 1607 and quite a few Facebook members, including your truly have
been asking members to join the campaign but with little response. So, why
is there empathy for pink chaddi and apathy for Aman Kachroo? Was the ‘pink
chaddi’ campaign more up-market than the reason for which a 19-year-old had
to give up his life? Is human life worth so little to us.

Children don’t deserve such a death – hell, no one deserves such a death.
But time and again, children die or attempt suicide unable to bear the
ragging at their institutions, and the authorities first attempt a cover-up;
then try to taint the victim’s character, and accept the crime only when the
shit hits the fan.

A cousin, who studied at one of the premier technology institutes in the
country in the 1980s, told me how juniors were put through the grind when
they joined. When seniors were playing cards in one of the rooms, and wanted
to smoke, the juniors were ordered to become ‘ashtrays’ – they were supposed
to sit on their haunches next to the seniors, with their MOUTHS OPEN so that
ash could be tipped in their mouth. Ouch! To those with a morbid sense of
fun and fair play, this may be much better than being beaten to death, but
that’s no consolation.

Now of course, premier institutions like the one referred to above have
clamped down on ragging and students who indulge in it are told to drop a
year and come back next year to continue the curriculum. Freshers are now
given right of way and seniors usually keep a safe distance from them for
fear of being reprimanded. Now it’s the freshers who are rude with the
seniors! And this was conveyed to me by a student at IIT Powai. Sadly, in
all this what is lost is the spirit of camaraderie and friendship. But I
guess, to avoid incidents like the one that happened with Aman Kachroo and,
just yesterday, with the girl in Andhra Pradesh who tried to commit suicide
because she couldn’t take the ragging, these steps are necessary.

So maybe it's time to see beyond pink chaddis and pub going loose women, and
take up the fight for Aman Kachroo’s family and also ensure that no kids,
whether yours or mine, lose their lives?