*Petition to President of India, Visitor of Banaras Hindu University from
Alumni of the University*
To
The President of India
Visitor
Banaras Hindu University
*Sub : On recent agonising developments in Banaras Hindu University*
Dear Sir
We alumni of Banaras Hindu University would like to convey to you our sense
of concern about the recent developments at our alma mater namely Banaras
Hindu University. Developments which have brought forward the issue of
safety and security of girl students on the campus and administrations
callous attitude towards it.
We are pained to learn that the administration refused to take any action
against sexual harassment of a first year student at the hands of three
bike borne men near Bharat Bhavan when she was returning to the hostel at
around 6 p.m. (21 st September). It is tremendously distubing to learn that
higher officials rather tried to shame her only allegedly by saying that
'why she was out till that time' or 'they (molesters) have only touched you
and not done anything else'.
Media reports tell us that there was nothing unusual about the response of
these officials, in fact, gender discrimination has been rather normalised
in this august institution. Restrictions have been put on the 24 hours
cyber library started on campus by earlier VC (Vice Chancellor)
predecessor, as the present VC believes that students use the facility to
watch pornography. Girls' hostel gates are shut at 6 pm, they are not to
use mobile phones after 8 pm, are not served non-vegetarian food in the
mess and are required to sign a statement declaring that they'll not
participate in any protest against the university. According the VC such
steps are necessary to make them 'cultured'. All this has allowed breeding
of a culture on campus which has become oppressive for the girls and on the
other hand indulging in misdemeanour by truant men is ignored or incidents
are covered up.
We feel that it is a travesty of justice that when the pent up anger of the
girl students against regular incidents of sexual harassment on the campus
and institutionalised gender discrimination exploded in the form of a
peaceful dharana at the University gates - which drew widespread support -
the administration not only tried to browbeat them by using time tested
methods of repression, brutalisation, criminalisation but has also tried to
stigmatise it by saying that ánti-national' elements are behind it. As of
now cases against more than 1,200 unknown students have been lodged by the
police under various criminal provisions.
We learn that despite video proof of police highhandedness - where male
police were seen brutalising girl students and other women staff -the
administration led by the Vice Chancellor G C Tripathy is still maintaining
that violence unleashed on students is mere propaganda and the whole issue
was blown up out of proportion by oppositional elements. In fact, a section
of the ruling establishment is trying to belittle the historic significance
of this spontaneous movement of girl students mostly coming from poor and
middle class families from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar- which is
reverberating across campuses across the country - against gender
oppression and discrimination, which has completely exposed the hollowness
of the 'Beti Bachao - Beti Padhao' slogan, as handiwork of 'leftist
elements'.
It has been widely reported that the district administration itself holds a
very different view of the situation and has blamed the University
administration itself for the violence. In his report, the commissioner has
emphasised that the University administration did not deal with victim
complaint in a sensitive manner, and didn’t handle the situation on time,
leading to the protests.'
Anyone conversant with the campus life would admit today that with the
ascendance of the present Vice Chancellor to the top post situation on the
campus has gone from bad to worse. His anti-academic, regressive, arrogant
attitude has vitiated the atmosphere of BHU, and the University needs to be
saved from its own VC.
Dear Sir, if this prestigious university, which has been a product of our
independence movement, is still allowed to be governed by the present Vice
Chancellor - whose only qualification seems to be closeness to a particular
ideology - the situation may become further worse. It is high time that
urgent steps are taken to save the University from regressive elements:
- We demand that either the present VC either leaves the university
immediately taking moral responsibility for mishandling this episode or is
sacked with immediate effect. And since the proctorial board has proved
itself inept in handling the situation, it be sacked immediately
- We also demand that all cases lodged against students be immediately
withdrawn.
- We demand immediate lightening all roads, installation of CC TV cameras
and formalising a proper security infrastructure which can provide security
at various points in the campus.
- We demand that the University forms a committee in light of directives of
the Supreme Court and High Court in Vishakha case for solving problems of
girl students and hostel inmates and which should have proper
representation of girl students as well as other women associated with the
university at various levels
*Endorsed by Alumni of Banaras Hindu University *
1. Prof Anand Kumar, Prof (retd) Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi
2. Sandeep Pandey, Social Activist. Lucknow
3. Neeraj Jain, Convener, Lokayat, Pune
4. Subhash Gatade, Writer and Activist, Delhi
5. Abhishek Srivastava, Journalist, Delhi
6. Panini Anand, Journalist, Delhi
7. Ranganath Singh, Journalist, Delhi
8. Siddhanth Mohan, Journalist, Varanasi
9. Dr Lenin Raghuvanshi, social activist, Varanasi
( If you are an alumni of Banaras Hindu
University please send your endorsements to
[email protected], [email protected] please mention the year in
which you were associated/passed out)
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