We are all thrilled to be able to attend the offline fest but how has this transition from online
to offline impacted the recent fests?
As the colleges have opened up in full swing, the much-needed college thrill has also
returned to centre stage. Recently students found themselves amidst the lucky stars as
universities like Netaji Subhash University of Technology (NSUT) and Indira Gandhi Delhi
Technological University for Women (IGDTUW) organised their annual fests. The
anticipation these cultural fests bring is quite high but did they justify students&’expectations?
The universities are organising fests almost after two years and there is an obvious shift
from the virtual screen to physical socialising. However, this shift is accompanied by the
nerve-racking issue of mismanagement. The annual fest of NSUT- Moksha 2022, brought
sheer euphoria to the college students since it was the first large-scale offline fest that was
being organised. Nevertheless, on the second day, the university saw a situation of
overcrowding. Singer Krishnakumar Kunnath (KK) was scheduled to perform due to which
the college experienced an overwhelming size of the crowd. This led to a situation of poor
crowd control. While the students were not permitted to leave the college premises, the large
crowd that was waiting to enter the college resorted to aggression and made their way into
the college by climbing over the gates and fences. Furthermore, amidst the aggressive
crowd, a few students were trying to make their way into the college and that is when a
stampede situation arose.
“The crowd around us started getting hostile and there was a Stampede. I was standing in
the front when the gates opened. I fell and I had people going over me. All I could hear were
the footsteps stomping and nothing else. We thought that we wouldn’t be able to make it,”
said a second-year student from Kamla Nehru College.
Another incident of crowd mismanagement took place at Taarangana 2022, the annual fest
of IGDTUW. Singer Javed Ali was scheduled to perform on the first day of the fest. However,
it got cancelled due to an issue of mismanagement. The fest saw an overwhelming number
of registrations which exceeded over 50,000 but the college is not equipped to hold such a
large crowd.
The authorities are to be blamed since they had an idea about the number that
is going to come and yet the college did not cancel the fest,”
said Taneesha, a student from
Kamla Nehru College.
The fest was moving as it was supposed to but things got out of control when this number
started showing up at the college and caused overcrowding. Police intervened in the
situation and the students were subjected to police brutality. Police unleashed lathi-charge
and water cannons. Students were gravely injured. Taneesha further said, “The police had to
intervene but the brutality was unnecessary. Students were subjected to multiple fractures
and heat strokes.”
Nevertheless, mismanagement and poor crowd control remained the primary issue of these
offline fests and even though “fest” gives us an adrenaline rush, it is necessary to ensure
proper security and management. While other universities have already geared up to organize fests, students sit in high anticipation for Delhi University’s (DU) fests. It is about
the time when DU starts planning for its annual cultural fests.
Image Caption: The annual fest of NSUT
Image Credits: Moksha, NSUT Delhi
Ankita Baidya
[email protected]
Comments are closed.