On March 1, 2017, the Techno India University was rocked with controversy. A fourth-year B.Tech. student, along with some of his friends, had assaulted a dancer who had visited the campus to participate in a fest. The details of the assault were unknown to most students and the public, till a few persons started posting about it on social media and demanded justice for the artist.
Now, two controversies surrounded the demands made. Firstly, those demanding justice mistook Techno India University for Techno India College. While both institutes conduct their classes in the same campus, they are totally unrelated to each other. Secondly, these people equated every student of the university with those who had committed the heinous offence.
As a student of this university, I would state that we, as students, never support any atrocity – no matter who commits it. If you are wrong, you are wrong. We never support violence of any kind within the campus.
Having said this, the reality of the situation needs to be stated. Most students of this university pay a hefty donation in the name of ‘management quota’. Consequently, the authorities are often incapable of taking any strict actions against these students. When you are paying double of what you are expected to, you will obviously expect a certain degree of unhindered privilege. And this is exactly what has happened in this case.
In the past, our campus has witnessed several strikes and violent incidents related to issues such as conducting ‘written examinations’ instead of ‘objective type examinations’ online and demanding for better campus placements. Those in the know would be aware that before the examinations, all suggestions are uploaded in the learning management system (LMS) or are distributed by teachers, so that the chances of failure are minimal. The average score obtained by a student here is around 6.5, while the highest is around 9.7.
Despite all this, the students are finding it difficult to secure a job via campus placements. The sole reason for this failure is that a majority of these students are ‘qualified’ only when it comes to their exam scores. This has, in turn, contributed to their frustration with the system of education here.
They have come to believe that the management is at fault for their failure to get a job. On the other hand, the management fails to take any strict action against the students when needed. The students therefore feel that they can do whatever they like without suffering the consequences of the act. Whatever happened on March 1, 2017, wasn’t an isolated incident. It was a result of the continuing inability of the college management, the sense of unnecessary entitlement among the students and the spoilt and megalomaniac nature of the rich and the affluent students.
What they did is highly condemnable. I condemn it and demand strict disciplinary actions against the persons responsible. It is high time that the authorities wake up now. If they fail to intervene now, Techno India University will become a lost cause. It will turn into a factory of goons who would do anything and everything without facing any consequences – a paradise of ‘goondaraj (hooliganism)’ and coercion. I stand in solidarity with the victim and distance myself from such acts of violence and its perpetrators.
However, I must say one thing – please do not judge us collectively based on the conduct of only a few people. They do not define or represent the majority of us. ‘They’ aren’t who ‘we’ are. Nor do they represent students in other institutes under the Techno India group.