Originally posted by: DelusionalMe
yes I heard about it, the #hokkolorob thing, well mostly read it on fb. sab chakkar kya tha, details please?
Well, it all started when a girl alleged that she was molested on campus during a fest night (28th August) by some hostelites. The VC did not inform her of the revamped version of the anti-sexual harassment cell - Internal Complaints Cell (ICC). He instead told her to wait for 15 days and not come to college because he was out of town. Naturally, the girl was surprised by these statements and instead she lodged an FIR at Jadavpur PS.
Then, on 5th September, two members of the ICC showed up at her house without prior notice and, while refusing to divulge their own identities, proceeded to question the girl on her choice of attire on 28th night, whether she was drunk, who she was with, etc etc. They told her that because of this incident and because of her complaint, if CCTV cameras are installed on campus and students rebel against it, she will be responsible for all the trouble. Naturally the girl was traumatised at these inappropriate questions and victim blaming. So she lodged a GD at her nearby police station against those two members.
The general students, upon hearing this, were outraged and we demanded the justification for such behaviour. We went to the VC's office where no one paid heed to our questions. We resorted to an impromptu gherao, during which around ten goons attempted to cordon off the students and get the ICC members out. Female students formed human chains around them hoping they wouldn't hit us (also because the ICC members were women) but then no one paid heed to that either and we were shoved around and punched by the male goons. After much angriness and declarations that we were not there to engage in physical violence and we just wanted answers, we managed to get them back inside the office and coaxed them to talk to us. Finally some of us were let in and we were told that it was neither an official nor an unofficial visit by the authorities to the girl's house. Obviously this was utter bullshit and an attempt to cover up their extra judicial methods.
The VC, of course, was out of town. We went to the Pro-VC and asked him whether the university had a zero tolerance policy towards gender violence. His answer was "ami jani na" (I don't know). We asked him several questions for 45 minutes, and his answers to everything was that he didn't know. All this we recorded on our phones. Everything henceforth was recorded on our own phones and cameras.
After this exercise in futility, we decided to resort to other methods. We engaged in an indefinite sit-in outside the main administrative building 'Aurobindo Bhavan', and decided to sing and play musical instruments and chant and generally be noisy enough to get noticed and talked to. The VC walked in every day, watching hundreds of us sitting there, singing and chanting, and he walked out every evening to the same sight. It was an indefinite sit in so people stayed over all night. Meanwhile, the police investigation went nowhere, and the ICC was being ridiculous as usual. We demanded that a separate investigative committee be formed because the ICC was inept at its job, as proven by its inherent bias, which in turn was proven by the members indulging in victim blaming. We asked for prima facie arrests of the accused as well. But nothing got done. The sit-in went on for 10 days. Meanwhile, in all our attempts to talk to him, all we got from the VC was "it is beneath my dignity to talk to the students" and "I am not paid to talk to the agitating students" and "this is a mob". Personally, I remember sleeping on the floor among this "mob" while they played classical music on their violins.
Meanwhile we gave deputations urging the VC to talk to us and to fasten the investigation process and to set up a new, unbiased committee according to the Vishakha Guidelines of 2013.
150+ hours later, we finally managed to convince the VC to take up the issue during an EC meeting on 16th September. However, he chose not to discuss the molestation allegations at all and instead talked about how this could have been avoided had everyone been more 'disciplined' and he had not given permission for the fest. He thus devised a committee not unlike the Inquisitorial Squad in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, hoping to make bands of students and teachers who would investigate all over campus for "unsocial and immoral behaviour". He decided to enforce ID cards, and to install CCTV cameras everywhere. He declared that several "relationships" blossom on campus, and several other objectionable things.
Naturally, we were outraged that he had completely ignored the problem. There is a huge difference between indiscipline and sexual violence. We proceeded to gherao the VC and the members of the ICC in order to pressurise them to talk to us, because once the EC passed an order, it became the law, and if we let that go, we could not do anything more about the issue. Scuffles ensued, among which the party goons among the staff pushed the students around and shoved and beat some of them, which the media conveniently ignored. Then, we let everyone but the VC and the ICC members go. The media stayed overnight, as did around 200-300 students.
The campus was teeming with police and RAF, and unidentified party goons. The VC had called the police to rescue him from the gherao because "his life was threatened". Personally, I was there till 9pm and I can vouch for anything that there were exactly four kinds of 'weapons' there - guitar, saxophone, violin and a beat box. There were exactly two female police. The police assured us that they were only there because the VC had called them, and they would cause us no harm. This was recorded, and the statement can be found on YouTube. At 2am on 17th September, they turned off the lights in Aurobindo Bhavan and the police and the RAF and the goons beat students to a pulp. RAF and goons from one side and the police from the other side descended on us and beat people with sticks, large dustbins, shoes, chappals, and whatnot. They punched, kicked, scratched, threw heavy flowerpots, and flung people to the wall. They stood on two of my female friends' stomachs and stomped on them. They couldn't move for days after. The huge heavy men STOOD on the stomachs of students who were lying on the stairs. They beat everyone bloody, molested several girls, tore off their clothes, dragged them by the hair, cordoned off the VC and took him away. Then they dragged 37 random students to their police cars and took them to Lalbazar and put them behind bars. One of them was female, which is outrageous since arresting women after sundown and taking them to a police station which is not all-female is a forbidden by law. They didn't let the injured or unconscious be taken out of campus, and beat those who tried to take them to the hospital.
At around 3:30 the remaining students blocked the Jadavpur PS crossing, and kept at it till 6 am, when they were threatened with police action and RAF beatings unless they moved. They left the spot and assembled in campus. Those of us who were at home ran there as soon as we could with first aid and money for those hospitalised. 40 people were in the hospital, 5 of them extremely critical, 2 in coma for the night. One of them suffered a little memory loss. Later, as we tried to free those who were arrested, we were told that 6 of them would be kept as "political prisoners" even while the rest were let go. After efforts from our professors we managed to get them all out of there.
We did a march that evening, with around 5000 people. We declared an indefinite class boycott. The teachers declared an administrative boycott of the VC. The next day, we marched again with 6000 people. We had a "mohamichhil" on 20th September, where around 1 lakh people showed up despite the torrential rain. The rally was so huge that it reached the Raj Bhavan before those at the end could even walk for 15 minutes. We did a roadblock till the Governor saw our deputation and talked to us. He assured us that he would see to it that all the arrest memos against the students be withdrawn. He did not address our request to get rid of the VC who had ordered the police action on us.
We left with hope but nothing happened. on 22nd September, TMC held a ridiculous "counter rally" which amounted to nothing and was simply hilarious because the interviews showed how no one even knew why they were walking. It gave us strength because we realised that we had managed to rattle the state somewhat.
A PIL against the incident was made, which we lost because of biased lawyers who claimed that only 20% of the students were for this movement and the rest were being inconvenienced. The puja holidays were our doom, and we failed to gather enough signatures to prove them wrong. This resulted in a judicial order of police picketing at gates, ID card checks, and a designated area for protest, which was essentially a tiny space in a mosquito infested area near the chemistry lab and hence smelled of ammonia. We defied them all, and we refused to show ID cards, and teachers refused to do the same, taking classes in people's homes and on the footpath outside and in the green zones or parking lots.
The VC stayed, and was absolutely unapologetic. We held GB after GB, we held conventions and rallies and whatnot. He was not bothered by any of it. Several of our supporters were beat up badly, with bikes run over their legs and their families threatened because they were vocal about the incident.
Later, after the puja holidays, we organised a referendum with five questions pertaining to the incidents that had taken place. We had an overwhelming majority supporting us, with over 90% votes on every question in our favour. Almost everyone wants the VC out, an impartial investigation of the incidents, and a judicial inquiry into the incidents of 28th August and 17th September.
All in all, no action of note has been taken on the incidents of 28th August. The VC is still there, grinning away in glory and he has even installed an electronic lock on his door. He is still under administrative boycott by the teacher's organisation and we plan to continue our class boycott during the next semester as well.
As of now, we plan to create a ruckus during the convocation on 24th December.
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