The Laundry List: Hooliganism after Banning of Drinking in Public in SRFTI

I am writing this in fear. I am scared that me and my friends will be beaten up by drunken goons who are also students of SRFTI. I am scared that my garden will be destroyed, my cat will be killed, my mother will be beaten up, my room will be set fire to. These are the thoughts which are running in my mind while writing this. Why?

Ever since I complained against sexual harassment on campus along with several  other female students, and three professors were suspended, I have been facing the most brutal form of intimidation and violence. I have been called names on social media, meetings have been held against me, I have been branded as mad. Have been accused of having ruined the ‘reputation of the institute’. 

On 6^th February 2016 a circular was passed around saying that drinking in public has been banned on campus. A picture of that notice was shared on WhatsApp groups in which students are members. People argued  against it. Badminton tournament happened in the following days. Yesterday, on 7^th February 2016 the commentator of badminton tournament announced that there was going to be a party after the tournament and that people were expected to contribute money for the same. S, my classmate was sitting next to the commentator and whispered into his ears. The commentator immediately corrected himself over the microphone that it was not a ‘party’ and that it was a ‘bhajan keertan’ because parties were banned of late. 

I was very disturbed that night and went up to Vai Vow’s room to sleep. His room is on the second floor. Mine is on the ground floor. At around 6 a.m on 8^th February 2016 I woke up to the sound of metal beating against metal. I got scared. I couldn’t understand what was happening. Vai Vow went outside the room. He came back in a couple of minutes and said that he was going to record something. He had been asked to record it all and use it as proof by S, who was drinking there. I got more scared. I followed him outside into the corridor from where you could see what was happening. A group of drunken men were shouting abuses in the badminton court of the girl’s hostel. This was right in front of my room. When they saw that Vai Vow was recording two of them left the frame. They were hitting the poles on the court with a metal rod. One of them said to Vai Vow ‘Jaake suna dena apne behan ke laudi ko’, referring to me. You can hear it here in this video which I uploaded without Vai Vow’s permission and against his wish.

He continued showering abuses.

Vai Vow called the hostel warden and said that there was hooliganism happening in the hostel and that he had to intervene. He came in some time and I heard more abuses. Neither of us slept for the rest of the night.

I asked Debja Ni and Bal, my neighbours, to be careful too.

In the morning I went and reported the incident to the ICC for Sexual Harassment. When I came back I saw the warden playing cricket with the drunken offenders. The video is here. The warden is the one who is batting.

 

You can see my clothes hanging in front of room. I saw that they had upturned a banner I had placed in front of my room. My newspaper which was on the latch of the door had been thrown on the badminton court. 

I called the warden and asked why he was playing badminton with the same people who had abused me in the morning. He told me that he had been forced to do that. I asked him to ask them to stop creating a ruckus in front of my room. He did that. All of them marched to the administration side of the campus. They held a meeting there and decided to talk to the authorities regarding the ban on public drinking. They had another issue too, the restriction placed on one senior student. He had been banned from entering the campus. [The person himself has been spreading rumours that the decision was based on my complaint. It was not.] The students wanted the offender to be brought back to campus. In the meeting which was held by the director of the institute with the dean and all faculty members students argued that they loved alcohol and they wanted to drink on campus and in public spaces. 

I asked the director why even after urging him to address the students on the matter of sexual harassment for weeks he had refused to do it and only wrote a letter which was pasted on notice boards and why he had agreed to meet all the students in the preview theatre along with faculty and dean when the matter in question was alcohol. He said that I had no right to question him. I asked him to ask what Sau Suman had called me in the morning, I asked him to tell me the meaning of the expletive he had used so that everyone could hear it. The director said that it was not a question and answer session. The dean asked me to leave the room because I was agitated. 

Yes, I am agitated. When my life is under threat I will be agitated. Sweet talking is a privilege. Sanity is a privilege here in SRFTI. When drunken people were abusing me nobody was bothered. When I raised my voice in a meeting I became the mad girl (again). 

Rape has already happened. SRFTI will stop only when it sees murder. Or perhaps it won’t even then.