CHENNAI: The Madras University campus witnessed a high drama on Wednesday when a student threatened to commit suicide if his suspension along with five others was not revoked.
The suicide drama came just ahead of the end of the controversy ridden tenure of the university Vice Chancellor R. Thandavan.
Suspended student Rajkumar on Wednesday climbed the roof of the university’s centenary building, poured kerosene on himself and threatened to set himself on fire and jump off if the suspension was not revoked.
In a desperate attempt to save him from taking any extreme step, fellow students urged university officials to revoke the suspension of the six students. They had been suspended on charges of fueling unrest on campus.
Under pressure, university Registrar P. David Jawahar revoked the suspension immediately. While Rajkumar was seeing the copy of the revocation of suspension, university staff diverted him and pulled him back to safety.
Police officers who tried to take him into custody were prevented from doing so by sloganeering students. After both the university and the students reached a settlement on the issue, police officers let the him go free.
Initially, students started to protest for public issues like demanding total prohibition and for basic facilities like toilets.
They started a protest on campus supporting a professor who was removed as head of the department of political science department. Later, the university suspended 10 students who were believed to be behind that protest.
Even after getting a favourable court order, suspension of six students was not revoked for several months, the protestors alleged.
“We petitioned many times to the university authorities. But it fell on deaf ears. More than 140 days had passed. Out of sheer anxiety, I took this extreme step,” Rajkumar said.
“Suspension of six students had already been revoked. We could not revoke the suspension of two students as they had filed a case in court. But to prevent any untoward incident in the campus, we revoked the suspension of those two students,” David Jawahar told DC.
