Aligarh: Eve teasing, lawlessness on Sir Syed Day 2012

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It is absolutely outrageous and disgusting that in recent years hooliganism, molestation/eve-teasing, and utter lawlessness has become inevitable news for the night of 17 October within the AMU campus.

Sadly and unfortunately, this is increasingly becoming the tehzeeb and tamaddun of AMU. Knowing this fully well that for whatever reasons, when we are not able to prevent that from happening, why do the women/girls come out on the AMU streets for pleasure-viewing of the colourful lighting decorations of the campus?

Perhaps they had thought that this time the distinguished and highly accomplished defense personnel being at the helm of the AMU’s administrative affairs, nothing of this sort will be repeated. They were naïve.

Every year there is a pattern: Each motor-bike having three boys come out on the University Road in large number displaying worst kind of wildest misbehavior; they enter through the, (i) “Tooti Boundary” of Jamalpur near the ABK Union School of the Medical Colony, (ii) Purani Chungi near the SZ Hall, (iii) AMU Gate near the Zakariya Market, via the Gulistan-e-Syed Road north of the Minto-E, (iv) the AMU Gate near the Sr. Secondary Boys’ School-Allama Iqbal Hall.

Lodge FIR against lumpens
And then all of them, joined by lumpens from other parts of the Civil Lines, assemble at the Bab-e-Syed-University Circle, near the VC Secretariat/Registrar’s Office, which becomes the site of riotous clashes by 10 PM on 17 October every year.

Almost absence of cultural programmes inside the Halls after the dinner could also be a probable cause of the hooliganism. Reports are there that they resorted to katta shots at the security personnel. Some mobikes have been seized. One hopes they will be given exemplary punishment for deterrence, and preventing its repeat in future.

FIR should be lodged against them for being riotous, attempting to kill the security personnel; the police action and court proceedings will let them understand what means doing all these. Audacity of these hooligans can be fathomed by the fact that on 18 October these hooligans went to the Proctor’s Office to recover their bikes seized by the police/proctor.

How to stop
Submitting by way of suggestion: One of the best way of ensuring better law and order would be (or have been) to start (from 15 October itself) massive checking of the motor-bikes, driving licenses/Identity Cards, and imposing cash fines on defiance/violations. More importantly, even for better administration during usual days blockage/semi-blockage of the Tooti Boundary is of utmost necessity.

In fact a thoroughfare from the Tooti Boundary is a biggest menace for the Campus administration which adds to the density of vehicles’ movements within the campus [I wrote about it sometimes back].

Unlike most of the campuses we don’t have any sign-board putting a speed limit of 20 kmph within the campus. Even in usual days, imposing fine on higher speed would not only raise revenue for the AMU, it will have salutary deterrence effect also.

The Proctorial establishment may think of taking help of local police occasionally. Pity on the parents who don’t hesitate from providing peculiar high cost and high fuel consuming bikes to their sons, who resort to stealing petrol from the motor-bikes of their teachers, as these fellows are already burdened with recharging coupons of their cell-phones.

Consequently, due to “austerity measures”, they don’t have personally owned text-books nor do they subscribe newspapers and career magazines in their hostel-rooms. The falling sale of the book-stalls around the campus is suggestive of such symptoms.

Bollywood actors as role models
The Bollywood film series of Dhoom fuelled the youth passion for deadly mobike-racing, with Rhithik Raushan and Abhishek Bacchan kind of poor under-achievers have become the role-models. Gone are the days perhaps, when Nehru, Nasser, Tito, Ali Shariati, Martin Luther, Che Guvera, Fidel Castro, and more recently even Lohia-JP, Charu Majumdar used to be the inspiring role models for the youth.

And Dilip Kumar (Yusuf Khan) was the Nehru's Hero. Presumably, through such dangerous biking stunts, they preferably make efforts to get their own Aishwarya Rais! I am puzzled to hear the news that the “thinking” Amir Khan will be performing in the third sequel of that deadly movie, Dhoom-III. One doesn’t know what will be the effect of Amir Khan on the movie-watching youth.

Amir Khan has however established his credentials for evoking strong social concerns among the people through his movies. May we have some hopes?

Teachers' problems
We, the teachers have our own problems. Few are taken as complicit in corruption; others have got their priorities in earning gold medals in sycophancy; most are passive by-standers; and thanks to the UGC (VI Pay) New Regulations we have been reduced to become “point-hunters” whereby the implicit thing is that teaching shall remain un-rewarded, attending seminars/conferences will earn points for promotion. [Publications in rigorous journals will take long time, hence less points per year, compared to the sub-standard, spurious journals].

We must therefore keep attending seminars/conferences in October-November and February-March of the semesters/sessions when the teaching ought to be at peak. This desperation has made some of the AMU teachers attend seminars on all kinds of themes regardless of their academic interest/ specialization, and therefore such desperate teachers have now become a subject of ridicule and mockery. Doing away with these point system (API scores), however, the AMU may indulge in most outrageous promotions.

Disconcerting impression
Wrongly or rightly, the campus has started gathering other disconcerting impression as well: “the administration is too soft on students, while remaining [willfully?] lethargic about dispensing justice to the legitimate concerns of the teachers (and students) like, improvising the classrooms and other infrastructure, computers with internet connections, holding selection committees without inordinate delay; it is too soft on the corrupt and erring functionaries, not to say of remaining silent on illegal recruitments/promotions done in the past”.

There are also some speculations that the disgruntled sections among the teachers (who perennially remain desperate to be in “power” through additional administrative assignments of AMU) might have fuelled/incited the hooliganism to discredit the incumbent administration.

Given the general impression, not many are in disbelief.

I haven’t ever been an admirer of the “institution of seniority” which had undoubtedly undergone lot of degeneration; the Senior Proctorial Monitors (SPMs) and the ilks were never inspiring figures among their juniors, yet they did have some utility on such occasions, once upon a time, I am told. Would it be a useful idea to re-think about, and/or to re-define, those kinds of practices?

(The author is Asstt. Prof. Centre of Advanced Study in History, Aligarh Muslim University. The write-up first appeared in Yahoo network and it is being run here with the author's permission)