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ShareRemember these names: Shashi Ranjan Singh Akela, Vimal Tomar, Vishal Rajoria, Pankaj Mishra, Sudhir Yadav, Hemant Dubey. Six young men felicitated in Bhopal this week on their release from jail. They are the ABVP activists accused of beating to death professor HS Sabharwal in Ujjain. Apparently students. Clearly goons. Maybe murderers. Remember their names. Soon they may rule your life as MLAs or MPs.
They were let off this week by a Nagpur court for lack of evidence. The judge said "justice could not be done to Sabharwal" because the prosecution had "miserably failed" to make its case.
The special prosecutor lamented that he had no support from the BJP state government in prosecuting these members of the BJP's student wing. Eyewitnesses -- including teachers and peons of the college -- who had earlier identified the accused, turned hostile in court. Policemen present at the scene of the crime went back on their statements.
So, just as we saw the public attack on the professor -- who was trying to placate 'students' rampaging over rescheduling student elections -- on national television, saw him collapse shortly before he was declared dead, we now watch the victory dance of ABVP and BJP members as the accused flaunt triumphant smiles and saffron garlands.
Reportedly, the prosecution was not going well. The police first declared that the professor had been found dead in his room. Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan said it was an accident. The statements of eyewitnesses were not properly recorded. Ignoring television footage and eyewitness accounts, the police registered a murder case against 'unidentified persons'.
Following public outrage, these ABVP members were taken into custody, where they got VIP treatment and the chief minister visited the prime accused. The medical college where Sabharwal's heart and viscera were sent for a pathological report (to establish whether he had died of a heart attack or assault) refused to accept them since the police had flouted legal norms and the evidence could have been tampered with. Two suspended inspectors were quietly reinstated and transferred to safer territory. The video CD of the incident was sent for testing to BJP-ruled Gujarat.
With such hydra-headed hurdles, even moving the case outside Madhya Pradesh couldn't bring justice.
We are used to such horrors. We know we need police reform to free investigations from political manipulation. We need ways of stopping witnesses from turning hostile. But Sabharwal's case also underlines the crying need to free our campuses from the juvenile delinquents of national political parties.
Student unions have traditionally been incubators of political activism, often nurturing important political leaders. Young adults learn to voice their needs, protest against wrongs, sort out problems among peers. The college campus provides more than an academic education; it offers this practical course in democracy and governance. It encourages you to think for yourself, to challenge old ideas, bring in fresh perspectives.
Unfortunately, that freedom of thought is gone. Student activists have lost their independence and are now slaves of politicians. They don't think, just toe their political party's line -- ABVP for BJP, NSUI for Congress, SFI for the Left. Student unions often act as the young goon squads of national political parties. Our campuses are no longer protected spaces for free thought and learning. They are traps that pull youngsters into the politics of corruption, violence, and crime. To save free thought and our future generations, we urgently need to cut the umbilical cord between the parent party and its campus kid.
Student activism was never about flexing political muscle. Pupils are supposed to learn from teachers, not dominate them. Bullying teachers could destroy the credibility of the education system, distorting the very essence of learning and producing fake degree holders. Negotiating a first-class degree isn't tough if you can get away with murder.
Around the world, student activism has stood for progressive thought. Let's not make India one of the few ignoble exceptions.
