Several students from colleges in North Campus have been abusing and harassing their peers from Kerala with highly discriminatory remarks in the classes and groups.
Note: The following article contains mentions of threats and sexual harassment.
The First Years have come forth with their first impression on the campus which with no doubt appears to be extremely sexist, bigoted and discriminatory. Reportedly students of various colleges of North Campus have made extremely discriminatory and insensitive marks towards students from Kerala Board.
Following is a text sent in the Fresher’s class of B.com Honours where the student can be seen accusing their peers from Kerala as ‘frauds’
The student even went further and asked the Teacher to “throw them out” of the North Campus. The comments don’t just bring forward the indecency of students but also their blatant racism. The language used here shows the ingrained biases of merit among students. SFI unit of Ramjas College has openly protested against such behaviour and asked for appropriate action to be taken against those responsible for harming the college space that is deemed to be a safe and inclusive one for all. The unit has mailed the Principal regarding this issue and urged them to take stern action as soon as possible.
“In recent times we have been seeing an increased level of intolerance among the larger society from the standpoint of Religion, Caste, Region, Gender and Race. As a student community, we must resist these sort of narrow narratives to maintain the inclusiveness of the Campus spaces.”
-SFI Ramjas in its Press Release
The xenophobic comments didn’t end there, Freshers have been harassing others in the unofficial groups to no extent. In its investigation, DU Beat found several such remarks made on other students that are highly offensive and discriminatory.
“In the unofficial group for Ramjas students, some people started bullying and abusing. First, they went on with verbally harassing the female students but further, they started with their bigoted remarks that Keralites are ‘black’, and started blaming us(students from Kerala) that we have stolen their college seats.”
-A First-Year student from Ramjas College
“Then the people targeting kept on saying that Keralites should move to the South Campus, mocking us again. Blatantly saying that students from Kerala got 100% marks through unfair means occupying good colleges such as Hindu and ‘jeopardizing his friends’ seats’.
-Shabeeb Areekode, a First-Year student from Ramjas College
Expressing his concern the CPI Rajya Sabha MP, Binoy Viswam has written a letter to Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu about the increasing hostility and hatred against students from Kerala and sought his intervention in the matter.
“Such remarks bring great dishonour and discredit to the students of Kerala who have worked hard to gain admission into reputed institutions of high rank. It further stigmatises students from applying and enrolling in these institutions,”
-Binoy Viswam in his letter to the Vice President
The entire focus shifted to students from Kerala when the ever scoring cut-offs dropped and about 2000 students from Kerala who scored a perfect 100 per cent secured their seats in North Campus colleges. Earlier Rakesh Pandey, a Professor from Kirorimal college also made some discriminatory and Islamophobic remarks against the students from Kerala where he termed it as “Marks Jihad”.
The issue at hand is of grave concern. In such a discriminatory environment how will the students from Kerala receive equal treatment in their very own University Campus? The session for this year just began and this is the first impression that a student is receiving who hasn’t even visited the campus in offline space. This portrays the true image of the University that is considered to be among the top ones in our country and blurs the delusional sparkly image.
Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives
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