Unfortunately, sir, your own response seems to have no hint of an argument. It makes incorrect premises, and draws conclusions that you believe follow for the incorrect premises you make, but, sadly, do not.
What you call surmise and hearsay are evidences that I'm giving, as a witness, that what the university claim are lies. There was a shutdown of internet, water and food. The administration knew that the non-teaching staff were going on strike. The administration knew that there are about 5000 students living on campus, most of them from far away places, and many of them of very limited financial means. What did the administration do then, to allay the situation? Did the administration try to make an alternate arrangement for food? DId the administration try to make an alternate arrangement for water? All it would have taken is to call a water tanker to deliver water in front of the hostels. Did the admin do that? In stead, the admin decided to sit tight and let the students fend for themselves. And then there were experiences like mine where agents of the administration tried to cut off some access that we tried to make for ourself. In the light of this, one has to conclude, reasonably, that either the administration colluded in the decision to cut off services (especially in the light of what people say they heard the registrar say), or that the administration did not care that the services were being cut off. The administration being ultimately responsible for these services, either way, they are at fault.
Your own evidence is mere surmise and heresay. You assume, and want us to believe, that the non teaching staff decided to protest because some of them were injured in the melee of 22nd morning. What were they doing there in the first place? Why did they suddenly decide to switch sides and support the VC? You expect us to believe that there were no negotiation, and no promises made to them? That one fine morning they wake up and realise, "Aha! We ought to support the VC! And maybe we'll go to his house since we have received information from the divine in our dreams that he is to return today!"
And how do you conflate the actions of a few people, done when they were terribly angry and upset, to the entire student community on campus? If we did likewise, and believe that all teachers are the same (which we do not), then we would have to conclude that all of you are sexual harassers, casteists, and thoroughly incompetent. Thankfully, we do not, and we are able to distinguish between a person who engages in something unethical and the others who don't. How is it that highly educated and published people like yourself cannot make out this nuance?
Let me make one generalisation however. If incidents like that of Rohit, and like that of 22nd morning still occur, there are fundamental issues that you are not addressing, and you as the teaching community have failed. Because, you are not here just to churn out research papers like a cow produces milk, but also to nurture others into your discipline. Nurturing others into your discipline also includes dealing with the challenges that come in the form of their backgrounds - whether that be caste, gender, religion, educational background. You have a constitutional responsibility to understand and be sensitive to these myriad backgrounds, and to tailor your training accordingly.
Even now, how many of you have tried to sit down with a few students, and try to understand the problems that they are trying to raise. You can go to shop com and find any number of sensible folk, who will not be violent nor will they try to intimidate you, who will sit down with you and have a chat - who will try to see your point of view, and who will try to enhance your knowledge of student issues. But now you might deter saying you don't have time for this nonsense. Well, good sir, what is nonsense for you is an issue of life and death for some. And if you don't want to understand it, that's your loss.
These are not political ambitions being played out sir. These are frustrations and voices against injustice. Injustice exists. You might not be able to see or recognise them, but they exist. If you want to see them, or recognise them, you need to train yourself to look for them, just like you trained yourself to look for the right questions in your discipline. That is, if you care enough. Although, I would argue that our constitution does not give you a choice in that - you have to care.
Why do I say that these are not political ambitions being played out? Well, for one, I see and hear them, and I see some of the injustices happening around me. It does not sound like mere political ambitions to me. More importantly, how many political leaders has our campus produced? As opposed to the number of scientists, public servants, researchers, writers, journalists? If what you argue is true, that our campus has become a training ground for budding politicians, well, you would see many more political leaders who come from this campus, wouldn't you? But you don't, do you?
It's easy to call a group a mob and call them the other, and then brand them as hooligans. It's more difficult, though more rewarding, to try to understand what their concerns are. To understand that the best of us are angry and uncontrollable at times, and that in some time, they will cool down. It is difficult to keep a level head and not be defensive. But these are also things that help us, as a community of human beings, to make for a more equal society, where everyone has, if not the same, at least similar opportunities.
On Fri, Mar 25, 2016 at 7:17 AM, Guruswamy Rajaram <grrsp@uohyd.ac.in> wrote:
The narration seems to re-inforce what the official version says about utilities and kitchens stopping functioning because of strike by nonteaching employees. The rest are surmises and heresay.
There is no point in ignoring the trigger event : violent attack that took place by a mob on the VC's lodge where a meeting of deans and local EC was under way. Students also need to be aware that the demand for security was made by quite a few teachers too (apart from nonteaching staff-the reason for strike) at a meeting next day. This was because in January, bands of people were going around intimidating people who preferred to work/teach and locking up buildings. At that time, police had to deal with municipal elections and could not provide personnel numbers that the sprawling campus requires. We do not know who the guys who intimidate are. It make sense to ensure that outsiders who have no stake in wellfunctioning of the University, do not have free access, to stir up trouble to enhance their own political fortunes or for pecunary benefit.
On Mar 24, 2016 11:40 PM, "Keshnath Prasad" <keshnathprasad@uohyd.ac.in> wrote:You are right sir, thanks for this.--On Thu, Mar 24, 2016 at 8:12 PM, Mohan K. Pillai <mohan@uohyd.ac.in> wrote:--Hello all,I came across this - https://www.facebook.com/uohyd/posts/10153410773021053 and the press releases sent yesterday. I want to counter at least some of the points mentioned.
"1. UoH Administration cuts off water, electricity and internet facility"We in South campus had not received water from 22nd afternoon. On 23rd morning, we tried to engage the pump behind our hostel; a plumber who spotted this contacted the sub-station, and got the power line to the pump switched off. 3 hours later, he told us that his "engineer had ordered to shut off water and power". He did later turn on the motor, and we did get water, by 23rd afternoon. But only with threats of turning off water supply after that once.The internet was very visibly down from 22nd afternoon, till today morning. And it's weird that the admin contradicts itself. In the title, it avers that it never cut off water, power or internet. Then, in the body it says "The internet facilities have been restored on the campus". If it wasn't cut off, how do you restore? Caught in the act.The registrar in-charge has also been quoted by several students on social media as having said something to the tune of "cut off their water and power, then we will see how they protest". Of course, I cannot vouch to the authenticity of this, and of course, the registrar will deny the charge.
"2. UoH does not offer mess facility"It is sufficiently clear from the "agendas" distributed to various people before the VC's arrival that he was making moves to secure the support of the non-teaching staff. One only wonders what he offered, to make them swing around from "one of our children has died!" to "these useless students are spoiling the reputation of the university". Needless to say, as any number of the non-teaching staff will attest, and have been confiding in us, it is not really all of them, just some their netas who called the strike. And given the kind of oppression they face at the hands of the admin, and their union being their only saviour, what can they do but obey their netas.If the University did not shut down the messes, as it says, then one wonders why they didn't try to make some sort of alternate arrangement seeing that the workers are on strike. Why didn't the wardens come to the hostels and try to work out something?
"4. Climate of terror at the Varsity"How on earth is it misleading? Have you seen the police in riot gear yesterday, flexing their weapons and surrounding shop com yesterday? Have you seen the police roughing up Uday Kumar for cooking near Shop Com? Have you seen the students huddled together in fear? Have you seen the tensions apparent on the student's faces all through the last two days?I request your help in countering the lies the university admin is trying to spread, to dissipate the current protests. If you have direct experience or evidence countering any of these points, please do reply here.I used to love this university. I wasn't partisan to any party, and in spite of my political leanings, used to try to look at things from different points of view, favouring nuances against generalisations. Now, with your lies and the behaviour of the past two days, I'm tired of this place. I took pride in this university, its people, its environment. I sometimes (foolishly) dreamed that if I ever got a job here as a teacher, it would make me so proud to come back and serve my alma mater (promptly followed by an imposter complex that I would never be good enough to teach here). But now, I hate this place. I never ever want to come back here. Even if it's a choice between a job teaching the subject I love and selling tea.
A lot of teachers here have lost my respect and admiration. Your PhDs, books, and published papers do not for sensitivity make. It might be worth your while to sit down and reflect on what meaning your life has had, what your life has done for the world at large, other than satisfying your academic egos.In my four years here, in my little almost insignificant ways, I have tried to do things to make this campus a better place. I now bitterly consider that time wasted.Yes, this is a rant; but this is also the voice of a disillusioned student who will never champion the cause of this university again, or defend it against detractors, who will not proudly declare his alma mater, but will rather shamefully try to hide it in a city name ("I did my -- and -- from Hyderabad"). You have lost a staunch supporter, and there are hundreds like me. We whisper amongst ourselves, and with revulsion share how we just want to finish our theses and get out of this place. This is no longer dissent - this is giving up.Mohan
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To post to this group, mail whatsup@uohyd.ac.in
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