Srinagar: The NIT Srinagar was quiet on Monday as examinations for various classes began amid tight security against a backdrop of recent disturbances on the campus.
However, a majority of outstation students skipped the minor exams and began returning home. This came after the Union Human Resources Development Ministry (HRDM) conceded their demand that they would be given an opportunity to write these exams later. Apart from all local students, only a few dozen outstation students, mainly final semester students, sat for the exams, the officials said.
They said these final year students were very keen to write their examination as “most of them have already got placement offers in good companies and don’t want to let this occasion go.”
Registrar, Dr. Fayaz Ahmed Mir, said that about 1,600 outstation students skipped the exams whereas those who chose to appear in these constitute only one percent of the total number of non-local students enrolled at the institute.
About 1,200 outstation students have left the campus for home over past two days and the others are preparing to leave in next couple of days. The Jammu and Kashmir government has offered to facilitate their travel. “About four hundred students left on Sunday and 700-800 others today (Monday). The state government facilitated their air or bus travel as per their convenience,” said education minister, Syed Naeem Akhter.
Sources said that many outstation students had even after skipping exams desired to stay put but the authorities did not agree, suspecting this could be a ‘mischief’ on part of ‘trouble-makers’.
“There was apprehension that their presence on the campus could be exploited by the vested interests to serve their own agenda. We also know some of the students have been swayed by outside forces which are hell bent on to keep the pot boiling,” said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The outstation students who did not sit for exams blamed it on the tensions set off by recent disturbances. The campus had on April 1 witnessed clashes after Kashmiri students celebrated India’s defeat at the hands of West Indies in ICC Twenty-20 semi final by chanting pro-Pakistan slogans and lightening fireworks. Exasperated by it, the outstation students who outnumber the locals allegedly attacked them, leading to clashes and closure of the campus for students for four days.
On April 5 evening, the outstation students attempted to leave the campus but were confronted by local police which used force, leaving many students injured. The incident evoked outrage across the country and many people took to social networking sites to denounce police action although video footage released by police shows students damaging the institute property and attacking policemen. The Centre rushed a two-member team of HRDM to hold talks with outstation students and asses the overall situation on the campus. Also, CRPF and SSB personnel in strength were deployed on the campus.
The authorities have accepted the protesting students’ demands of improving infrastructure on the campus including providing them with better amenities including good washrooms, a recreational hall, un-interrupted power supply and communication facilities such as Wi-Fi Internet access. They have also been assured steps would be initiated to improve academic atmosphere on the campus.
As for their security concerns, Deputy Chief Minister, Nirmal Singh, has assured them that they would not be facing any problems as central forces in strength have been deployed on the campus. Responding to the demand that stern action may be taken against the policemen involved in April 5 cane-charge, he told the students that since Jammu and Kashmir government has ordered a ‘time-bound’ probe into the incidents they should wait for its finding. He assured them that if the inquiry confirms any lapses or dereliction of duty or excessive use of force by the police, “we not spare the guilty.”
However, the HRDM has rejected outright the outstation students’ demand that NIT Srinagar be shifted out of Kashmir. It has also said a categorical ‘no’ to their plea that alternatively campus extension be set up somewhere outside the Valley or migration rules may be relaxed to enable desiring students to move out and get enrolled at convenient NITs elsewhere in the country. The HRDM officials, Mr. Singh and Akhter have had a series of rounds of talks with protesting outstation students past week which yielded “positive results”, generating hope for complete normalcy returning to the campus soon.
Meanwhile, Congress party general secretary Ambika Soni on Monday while terming as "wrong" the use of force against students by J&K police said a judicial probe should be held to nail the truth behind the disturbances witnessed on the campus recently.
Soni after speaking at a rally of her party workers here told reporters, “We want an impartial judicial inquiry which will establish what went wrong on the campus, why it happened and on whose orders did it happen.” Without naming PDP-BJP combine, she alleged, “The parties which formed the government are playing politics over students”. Again without naming Bollywood actor Anupam Kher, she asked “What is the need for outsiders to attempt to interfere in the issues of students.
The 61-year-old actor was on Sunday stopped at the Srinagar airport by the Jammu and Kashmir authorities to prevent him from visiting the NIT Srinagar campus. He was sent back to Delhi by next available flight. The officials justified the move saying that Kher accompanied by filmmaker and social activist Ashok Pandit had planned their visit to the institute to meet protesting outstation students at a time when situation was limping back to normal following a series of rounds of talks the State government functionaries and HRDM officials had had with them over the past few days.
