The Hindu : Front Page : Students pay homage to bus burning victims

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 17, 2007
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Students pay homage to bus burning victims

K.V. Prasad

Judgment shows truth and justice will prevail; it will also deter such politically motivated acts, they say "When students are called the pillars of the country, why should such heartless acts happen?"

HOMAGE: A student of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in Coimbatore on Friday placing a garland on the pillar erected in memory of the three girls who died in the Dharmapuri bus burning incident. — Photo: M. Periasamy

COIMBATORE: The loud ring tone of a reporter's mobile phone pierced the silence around the memorial pillar at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University hostel here on Friday. But more than 20 postgraduate students present did not seem to hear it. They stood with heads bowed before the granite structure erected in memory of the three girl students killed in the bus burning incident at Ilakiyampatti in Dharmapuri District on February 2, 2000.

Engraved on three granite slabs were the names V. Gayatri, K. Hemalatha and V. Kokilavani, who were only 20 at the time of the incident.

Palpable anger

It took seven long years for the judgment to come. Anger that was only slightly visible on the grim faces poured out in the form of questions such as, "When students are called the pillars of the country, why should such heartless acts happen?" A girl wondered why students should become targets of groups indulging in such acts in support of just one person.

The students offered to speak on the condition of anonymity.

Classmates of the deceased, now pursuing research at the university, were contacted for comment. But they refused to meet journalists waiting outside the hostels. They conveyed, through their friends, their desire to put the incident behind them.

A few of the current postgraduate students, who never knew the three girls, felt compelled to visit the pillar.

During the counselling session ahead of admission to the undergraduate course, they had walked up to it as the incident weighed heavily on their mind.

Heinous act

The students said the three girls could have become good professionals, earned a good name for the university and done good to society. But, a heinous act did not let that happen.

The judgment showed truth and justice would prevail. It would also deter such politically motivated acts, they said.

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