Ragging lives on in Gujarat Vidyapith

Ahmedabad: Just when you thought sufficient steps had been taken to ensure that freshers didn’t face severe ragging, an incident at an institute, which was set up by none other than Mahatma Gandhi himself, has brought back the old fears.

Several newcomers at Gujarat Vidyapith’s Sadra campus, near Gandhinagar, have alleged that they were forced to give massages to a senior student for weeks in the name of ragging.

The ragging did not stop at that. Things took an ugly turn when a junior was massaging a third year student of microbiology and spilled oil on his body.

The senior student was so enraged over this incident that he forced 17 freshers to strip, after which he and some of his classmates allegedly poured oil on their posteriors.

The traumatised students reported the case to their parents, who in turn lodged a complaint with the Vice-Chancellor.

One of the 17 students, in his complaint letter to the VC, stated that he had been called inside the room by a senior at around 2030 hours on July 18.

After the massage, he wrote, the senior asked him to strip, threw oil on his posterior and then quickly left the room.

However, the VC failed to take strict action against the senior students. When the matter fell into the hands of the Registrar, Dr Rajendra Khemani, he let the culprits off with a warning and a mild ‘punishment’.

Khemani said after talking at length about the incident with the parents of the victims, they had reached an understanding.

He said the senior students had been let off with a warning and asked to do social work one hour everyday as punishment.

Vidyapith officials initially tried to cover up the incident, stating that it was a case of verbal abuse.

Later, Khemani finally admitted to it and said that the guilty student used to get massages for the last four months as he was injured during a sports event.

While getting a massage from one of the juniors, some oil had fallen on his posterior. He then asked students to take off their clothes and threw oil on their posteriors.

A relative of one of the students, on conditions of anonymity, said the student was so traumatised and ashamed after the incident that he could not speak to his parents about it.