Keya Sarkar: Show us the way

PEOPLE LIKE THEM

Recently when I asked a friend of mine to visit us in Santiniketan because the weather was so perfect, he said he had no desire to get shot! I said if he was not guilty of "texting" women he would be in no danger!

Unfortunately Santiniketan seems to be in the news for all the wrong reasons. The most recent, that which my friend was referring to, being a student in the Visva Bharati University girl's hostel being shot dead by her jilted boyfriend.

Now an incident like this can happen anytime anyplace. But the fact that it occurred in broad daylight with the young man walking right into the hostel, upset other students and understandably, their parents.

Needless to say, the incident (in a small town like Santiniketan normally bereft of excitement) dominated conversation for many days. While many found it amusing and came up with "what if?" scenarios, many others thought this was a serious issue. They felt that the shooting incident was the culmination of the lax administration that Tagore's university has come to be known for.

Thanks to Tagore, the university has till today an appeal for many scholars, both Indian and foreign. All those who travel miles to this place founded by a man they adore, almost always leave disappointed. The Rabindra museum does little to evoke reverence and awe or, for that matter, interest in a great human being. The university complex is strewn with litter, the campus roads haven't been attended to in years and many campus roads are not even lit at night.

The situation in the hostel reflects this general lack of accountability. The food is bad, the warden is missing, and cleaners are busy moonlighting. But to me the story which took the cake was that, apparently, before this incident girl students had complained to authorities about lumpen elements hanging around their hostels and even putting their hands in through the hostel windows in a new twist to eve teasing! Of course, these complaints failed to get any administrative response.

All this, despite the fact that, as a central university, Visva Bharati does not lack in funds. Be that as it may, one would have imagined that after the sanctity of the abode of peace was severely broken by the sound of gunshots, there would be emergency meetings, heads would roll, and new security systems would be put in place. All that and more must have happened, but the picture that caught the imagination of the press was that of the vice-chancellor of the university sitting at chatim tala or under the tree which is now almost an icon for what the university once stood for. He sat there for almost an entire day noting down in his pad songs of Tagore which would be a source of strength and inspiration in this hour of strife.

While for many this bordered on the ridiculous and was yet another symbol of how impotent Bengali intellectualism had become, for many others it was indeed the right strategy. They argued that it is not possible for any institution to provide security in a manner which would ensure immunity from those with a design to kill. All that the institution could hope to do was to strive for an environment where the aspiration for knowledge was supreme. And that the vice-chancellor was indeed setting a fine example of looking inwards for strength instead of any outward show of hired security personnel.

As I listened to all the debates that raged and all the opinions that were voiced, I must admit I tended to be more for the vice-chancellor than against. If there was going to be any way that the university could be pulled out of the swamp that it is currently in, it would be by going back to the ideals that Tagore stood for, a re-dedication, as it were, to the cleansing of souls and higher learning.