The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Guns `n' goons on campus

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 23, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Guns `n' goons on campus

R. Ravikanth Reddy

Teachers beaten up, Student fired at... what are campuses coming to?

HERE TO PROTEST: Has academics taken a backseat in colleges?

HYDERABAD: Intelligent yet sober, aggressive yet courteous - a student on the college campus usually answered to this description. Their social upbringing and cultural background ensured that they didn't break many limits. But, this image has undergone a sea change in the recent years.

Courteousness is now dominated by aggression and soberness is replaced with rebellion. Violence has become a weapon for finding solutions leaving little scope for settling the matters by democratic protests. Campus history is replete with incidents of protests against teachers or damaging property when `injustice' is meted out to students.

But physical attacks on lecturers and use of firearms on fellow students is a new trend. The attack on Kakatiya University teachers and the shootout at the Deccan Engineering College, both in the past one-week, portend disaster.

The reasons for this disturbing trend are many. If the dwindling values in the society could be one reason, the heroic way in which violence is portrayed in films and media obsession, could be another. The latter inject the idea in students that violence is the easiest route to 15 minutes of fame.

But are student alone to be blamed? "The hostile relationship with teachers is not just the fault of students," says Nannuri Narsi Reddy, president, Telugu Nadu Student Federation (TNSF).

"Groupism among teachers is too results in strained relationship, with students being used as pawns to settle their personal scores. It is no secret that majority teachers in the Universities are divided on the lines of caste, region and religious," he says.

Studies can wait

"Now, the fate of students is not decided by academic calibre," believes B. Rammohan, president of Telangana Rashtra Vidyarthi Sangham.

"When teachers fail to command respect, students feel that they have nothing to fear. This belief drivies students to resort to violence. It is a way to let out their frustration," he says. Of course, some choose this path to hide their mistakes.

Desire for fame and false heroism attached with use of firearms might also act as triggers to violence.

"Media's obsession with sensationalising violence on campus is a reason. When films glamourise use of firearms, students too want to emulate heroes. Such incidents result," says a teacher in engineering college.

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