Banaras Hindu University was once the hub of North Indian student politics. But it has now adopted an attitude to women which is not in conformity with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s, Beti Bachao slogan. A woman student was harassed on the campus last week. The way the University administration handled the case has raised eyebrows. The warden took the familiar objectional line of asking questions about what the girl was doing late at night-a repeat of the initial response to the stalking case in Chandigarh some time ago. Protesting students were lathi charged by the police and many of them were seriously injured. True, chief minister Yogi Aditya Nath has ordered a high level probe but the attitude of the warden is shared by many in high places in Uttar Pradesh. So Modi’s campaign for Beti Bachao has suffered a setback in his own constituency, Varanasi. The local administration has evidently not learnt from his enlightened outlook. Four women students were also attacked by blundering policemen on the BHU campus. FIR has been filed against a 1000 odd students. Five officials have of course been removed which may be construed as a confession of guilt. Why then are students hauled over the coals?
Obviously, BHU is still impregnated with a fusty patriarchal attitude. Last year, eight women were suspended for staging a dharna protesting against gender discrimination at the University. Hostels for women were not given vegetarian food, access to the internet and subjected to strict curfew timings. They appealed to the Supreme Court on those grounds but such restrictions did not apply to hostels with men. This kind of attitude decidedly violates the guiding principles of the Constitution. But what seems more ingrained which sets such principles at naught is the mindset in people who matter. It brings to mind a worrying matter. The Delhi High Court so eloquently sentenced to death the human beasts who raped and murdered Nirbhaya. Goodness knows when the sentence will be executed?