look news india
The higher education environment of Punjab has been facing a serious crisis for the last few days due to unprecedented tension, student anger and violent protests. Large-scale student movements suddenly erupted in the state’s two largest and most prestigious private higher education institutions—Chitkara University near Patiala and Lovely Professional University (LPU) in Phagwara. Although the situation in both the complexes has now been brought under control after the huge alertness of the Punjab Police and the district administration, the large-scale vandalism, arson and violent clashes at both the places have raised many deep questions.
From the Director General of Police (DGP) to the local intelligence agencies are now investigating from a sensitive angle whether this anger of thousands of students was merely the result of baseless rumors on social media, or whether anti-social elements had fanned this fire as part of a well-planned conspiracy to destabilize the peace and order in the state. Following the massive destruction on the campus and uproar on the national highway, security has been tightened in both the institutes and investigating agencies have stepped up the process of identifying the miscreants.
The spark of this entire incident first started burning in Chitkara University campus. Suddenly this sensational information started being circulated on social media platforms and informal WhatsApp groups of students that two girl students from the hostel are missing under suspicious circumstances for the last two days. As this unconfirmed news spread rapidly, hostel and campus students started gathering outside the administrative block in large numbers. Within no time the peaceful protest turned into a violent demonstration. The angry students raised slogans and started vandalizing the campus properties, directly accusing the university management of suppressing the matter and playing with the safety of the girl students.
Sensing the urgency of the situation, Banur DSP Sukhdev Singh and local police station in-charge Gursevak Singh reached the spot with heavy police force. Police officials held face-to-face talks with the student delegations in the presence of administrative officials and tried to clarify the facts of the matter. Preliminary investigation conducted by the police revealed that none of the students who claimed to be missing could provide the names, identities, roll numbers or department information of the alleged missing girls. The local police and the university management clarified that no missing complaint has been lodged by any parent and prima facie the entire matter has proved to be a malicious rumour. The police gave a strict assurance to the students that the campus is completely safe and if any genuine complaint is received, prompt legal action will be taken.
The Chitkara University incident had not yet completely subsided when the huge campus of Lovely Professional University (LPU) located in Phagwara also came under the grip of similar horrific allegations. A rumor that a student was allegedly raped inside the campus by an outsider spread like wildfire on social media. As soon as this sensitive information came to light, thousands of students came out of the hostels late on Saturday evening and started protesting against the university administration. Within no time this anger crossed the campus walls and the students completely blocked the Delhi-Amritsar National Highway (NH-44).
This traffic jam continued for more than 15 hours continuously, causing massive traffic jams several kilometers long on both sides of the national highway and thousands of common travelers left stranded. There was a heated confrontation between the protesters and security forces late on Sunday night. During this time, some miscreants set fire to many government and private vehicles, including police patrol vehicles. Many policemen were also seriously injured in stone pelting and arson. However, LPU Dean Saurav Lakhanpal issued an official statement rejecting all allegations of rape. Dean Lakhanpal clarified that the university has thoroughly investigated the matter in collaboration with internal security and local police, in which no evidence of any such incident was found. He said that this was a completely fabricated rumor which was deliberately spread to provoke. In view of security reasons, the administration has postponed all regular classes of the university for the next 10 days.
Considering the sensitivity of the incident and the huge number of international and non-state students, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann immediately took cognizance of the matter. On the direct instructions of the Chief Minister, Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav himself reached Phagwara and conducted a detailed inspection of the LPU campus. To control the situation, DIG Jalandhar Range Naveen Singla, SSP Kapurthala Gaurav Tura, SSP Hoshiarpur and SSP Jalandhar Rural remained at the front with heavy police force even at midnight. The police, playing the role of mediator, established communication between the agitated students and the management, after which the jam could be removed from the highway.
While talking to the media, DGP Gaurav Yadav said in clear words that some anti-social elements deliberately tried to disturb the peace by taking provocation and pelted deadly stones at police vehicles. He announced that a high-level Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed to investigate the entire episode impartially and in-depth. The DGP said that scientific and technical analysis of the footage of all the CCTV cameras installed on the campus and the National Highway is being done. He gave a stern warning that strict legal action will be taken against any student or outsider who is found taking the law into his own hands by registering an FIR under non-bailable sections.
This campus unrest has also heated up the political atmosphere in the state. Amidst the preparations for the upcoming assembly elections, opposition parties have started cornering the Aam Aadmi Party government on the law and order front. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal launched a scathing attack on Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, alleging that the Punjab government has proved to be a complete failure in maintaining law and order in the state. Badal said that if the intelligence network and the local administration had come into action in time, the chaos that lasted for hours on the national highway could have been avoided. He also strongly condemned the alleged police crackdown on students.
On the other hand, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ravneet Singh Bittu termed the unrest as a well-planned political conspiracy. Bittu alleged that currently BJP’s ‘Drug-Free Punjab’ campaign is getting tremendous public support from the youth and general public of the state, and such inflammatory rumors were spread in universities in a planned manner to divert the public’s attention from this campaign and the administrative failures of the government. At present, there is peace in both the campuses under the supervision of police and administrative officials, but the sensitivity of rumors and misuse of social media has definitely created a new and big challenge before the security agencies.