- Seat of learning, but victim of intolerance
Pitched fights between groups of ‘miscreants’, use of firearms, injuries, physical and judicial remand of over 200 brawlers under Anti-Terrorism Act, torching of vehicles, blockade of roads, disruption of routine activities, vandalism, arson and a police flag march, are not indicative of the coming revolution or the Red Dawn. They were sad sights witnessed at the country’s oldest seat of learning, the Punjab University, last Monday, and signify an unfortunate failure on multiple fronts. The first and foremost (almost for a generation) is the politicising of campus by the student arm of a religious political party and its self-righteous tendency to stifle all other counter-narratives by force, the second, weak and tainted administrations, secure in the knowledge of powerful political backing, and third, the general decline in quality of teaching staff and their lack of 100 percent commitment, signified by absence of personal interest in their wards’ scholarship and healthy development, and by the growth of private academies which are nowadays their natural habitat, rather than their own teaching institutions.
The clash on January 20 had another ominous aspect to it, as it involved students belonging to two ethnic groups from the neglected Balochistan, sent here by doting parents anxious for their dependents’ career prospects, some under quota scholarships awarded by various universities in the Punjab. By the divisive clash that occurred at the welcoming camp for new students, yet another opportunity to build bridges and intermingle peacefully in an open environment was squandered, and enmities forged instead of friendships at that emotional, impressionable age. The Punjab chief minister initially stood for strict action, but no doubt as a future PM aspirant, did a somersault after the Balochistan home minister demanded withdrawal of terrorism cases that created a dangerous ethnic bias, he even admonished those responsible, so that all cases were quashed and the remaining detained students freed yesterday, with only disciplinary action awaiting them. In education, the mindset must be that of ‘let a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend’ (peacefully), and not bigoted suffocation of thought, or banning of concerts and cultural events.
