Political clout

Several years ago, there was an upcoming politician who had assumed the office of Chief Minister after his mentor died while in the office. He enjoyed support of the majority of the party and he won the battle to win # 1 position after defeating his direct rivals who were seniors to him. He also fought the general election and won a thumbing majority in the assembly. He was very happy about himself and his ability to command so much respect in the party and the confidence of the public.


That was when words of praises and awards were showered on him. One of the Universities decided to join the bandwagon to award a doctorate to this politician as he was one of the accomplished writer, poet and orator. However, he did not have a formal education beyond school. Since it is the first recognition by a University and he decided to accept it. However, the students in that University were not very happy about this decision by the University and the students’ council raised an objection to this doctorate being awarded to this politician. Since the decision was taken at the highest level and it involved high political ramifications, the University decided to go ahead with the awarding of the doctoral degree. They were expecting some trouble and hence requested for police protection for the graduation ceremony.


The day arrived and nearly 1,000 armed policemen were placed at the strategic positions in the University. With all the fanfare the Chief Minister arrived to get his doctoral degree. The students had planned a peaceful black flag demonstration at a location allocated to them as permitted by the district collector. When the Chief Minister’s convoy came, the students shouted slogans against the politician and also displayed placards to express their displeasure. They also had a dog dressed up with the board on its neck displaying the doctoral degree. Having seen all of that, the politician got very agitated. The graduation ceremony was over without any event.


For some strange reason, after the event was successfully concluded, the policemen entered the hostels of the students and went to each floor. They broke open every door and beat up every student that they could see in the room. Almost all the residential students were bleeding and running away from the scene. Some even jumped from the second floor to escape the unprovoked cane charge by the policemen. When students were running out of the hostel to save their lives, some policemen chased them and one of the students in order to escape, jumped into a lake and drowned.



The body was found in the evening and the unprovoked attack and the death of a student provoked an indefinite strike by the students and the University was shut down for a prolonged period of time. An investigation was carried out about the death of the student by the State Government and eventually, the politician and the policemen were victorious as the body was not positively identified by anyone including the parents of that student before the investigating officers. The investigation reports were submitted stating that there were no police atrocities inside the campus. Since the body was not identified it was considered unrelated death to the police atrocities.


This is a true event that had happened several decades back in the late 1960s.

 

Thank you for your fb. It did happen in C town. I was a student at that time and I was the one who jumped from the second floor to escape police atrocities.

Viswa

 

Thank you for your fb. It was a real nightmare. I thought staying in the hostel was the safest thing to do but I was proved wrong.

Viswa