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The former professor of Arabic at Zakir Hussain College, famed for his political opinions and alleged affiliations, passed away on Thursday, October 24th, following a cardiac arrest.

 

 

Syed Abdul Rahman Geelani, aged 50, fell unconscious in a South Delhi gym on the afternoon of October 24th and was rushed to Fortis Hospital. However, Geelani could not be revived and died due to a cardiac arrest, his son Atif confirmed.

 

SAR Geelani was arrested by the Delhi Police in 2001, on suspicion of connection with the Parliament Attack case. He was sentenced to death by a special Sessions court on charges of abetting terrorism. However, this conviction was set aside by the Delhi High Court in 2003, on account of flimsy, insufficient evidence. The decision was upheld by the apex court in 2005. Though the Supreme Court ratified the high court’s decision, it said it remained “suspicious of his (Geelani’s) role”.

In 2005, after his acquittal, he was shot at when he was en route to meet his lawyer. After this incident, he came under the protection of the Delhi Police.

 

In the aftermath of his arrest and subsequent vindication, Geelani gave an appalling and explicit account of his interrogation and torture at the hands of Delhi Police and intelligence agencies in Nitya Ramakrishnan’s book, In Custody: Law, Impunity and Prisoner Abuse in South Asia. The interview unveiled the alleged systemic maltreatment of prisoners and undercover operations of state agencies.

 

In 2016, days after the arrest of student leader, Kanhaiya Kumar for raising alleged anti-national slogans, Geelani was charged with sedition for organizing an event against the execution of Parliament attack convict, Afzal Guru.

 

Since Geelani was a protectee of the Delhi Police, his post-mortem was conducted at AIIMS to avoid any ensuing controversial situations or conspiracies.

On Friday afternoon, SAR Geelani’s body was taken to Kashmir so his final rites could be performed in his hometown, Baramulla.

 

 

Image Credits:  Indian Express Archive

 

Prisha Saxena

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Pulse, the annual Cultural fest of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) which closed on 22nd September, faced immense backlash for mismanagement, chaos, and alleged forgery of results in the fashion show event.

The 19th edition of Pulse, the annual Cultural fest of All India Institution of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), took place from 16th to 22nd  September. This coveted event soon turned into a chaos when many of their events were delayed by an hour or more. The management is also being accused of forgery in results of the fashion competition, Panache.

An anonymous source from Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies (SSCBS), told DU Beat, “The entire event was chaotic. We had solo performances, after the event began they told us then that they don’t have instruments set up, which is necessary for performances. So many colleges like Jesus and Mary College and us, helped them set up. Also, the process of sorting of slots wasn’t done right. And the students there weren’t supportive of the participants.” He also said that after a delay of one hour, the first-year members of Dhwani, SSCBS’s Western Music Society, went up on the stage and people in the back were yelling and unnecessarily shouting which made the entire process for the first-years very traumatic. “We literally had to stop the performance to make them (the crowd) silent and then continue. We had to encourage them (our juniors) and tell them that crowd of other places is genuinely better,” He added.

Arjun Jaiswal, Member of Dhwani, said “Being on stage, there were many lights and hence we couldn’t identify who and from where the people were shouting. And the only action taken against them was there were told by the anchor to leave the auditorium or stay quiet.”

The mismanagement did not just restrict itself to the Western Music event, but to the Fashion event as well.  Since past three years, AIIMS has been accused of forging results and favour certain teams. This year the fashion societies of various colleges witnessed the same in Panache, the Fashion Show.

Anshika Jain, President of IVouge, the fashion society of Sri Guru Gobind Singh College, said, “They promised us that results wouldn’t be forged like the previous years. They made us believe that it won’t happen. But we get to know that the results were rigged and the judges were switched last minute which was after 1 a.m. It was a waste of time and energy for all the teams who performed. We were given 3rd position, but they didn’t provide us with the mark sheet when asked. Later on when got the picture of mark sheet after arguing for about an hour the results were different from those announced. One of the judges, Ankit Gera agreed that the judgement was biased and that the teams faced injustice.”

She also added, “A few teams practiced on the main stage for 20-30 minutes whereas the other teams weren’t allowed to do the same.”  The fashion society event was delayed for four hours. Many societies, who were promised two rooms for themselves and heavy props, were given only one small room. Other than this, many teams were not even informed of their slot right until they came to the stage which gave them no time to prepare.

In protest of what happened, many fashion societies have come together and stand in solidarity against this. They might boycott AIIMS next year onwards. Many societies have resorted to Instagram to share their experience of this day with numerous posts to prevent anything like this in future.

 


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IVogue kickstarted its session 2019-2020 by securing 3rd position at Pulse – The Annual Fashion event at AIIMS @pulse.aiims, but just like the previous years, the sequence of events of mismanagement were no different. Not only the judging panel was changed at the very last moment, but the scorecards were also tampered with by the organizers of the event. In the era of nepotism, the scores of the favoured teams were spiked at the last moment. The scorecards evidently reflect the results that were intended to be declared by the judges. The scores were changed right before declaring the results and the judges candidly admitted the same. Also, the scorecards were not made transparent initially, being the participants. Every team puts in a hefty amount of hard work into these performances and deserve a fair judgement procedure. We stand united against the biasness and appeal every other team to do the same.

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@pulse.aiims has always been counted as one of the most awaited competitions of the season and seeing such mismanagement was highly disappointing. And we got to know that the result was rigged and the judging panel was switched at the last minute (and this is the 3rd time the same thing happened). After the results were told onstage, we went to the judges asking for feedback along with other college teams but instead of constructive criticism, the judging panel went berserk and shouted in a very unethical manner. Moreover, the event got delayed and all the teams were forced to wait for a long span of 4 hours. The result sheets were shown after an hour of arguing where in we had scored the highest in some sheets (being 7th slot, IHE) despite which not even the third position was given to us! This is the first time one of the judge among all of the judges agreed to the statement of the teams that it was biased ( And the judge was @ankitgera001 who agreed that it was biased). We need to put a stop to this and all the societies must raise their voices against this incident. @ivogue.sggscc @glitzfashionsociety @galorefashionsoc @bizarre_thefashionsociety @mlncbellissimo

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A fashion society member, on the condition of anonymity said, “Bringing our problems to the head coordinator, I also want quote the words of what they said in response- ‘yehi hoga, itna hai toh mat aana agli baar.’ (This will continue to happen, if you are so displeased then don’t come again.)”

 Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Chhavi Bahmba

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On the occasion of World Mental Health Day, Mental Health Foundation (India) in association with the Department of Psychiatry, AIIMS organised India’s first Mental Health Festival. With the tagline, “Art has the power to liberate your soul”, the daylong event saw an array of creative activities and art forms revolving around stress, emotional well being, trauma, and mental disorders.

The festival started with lighting of the lamp ceremony by Prof. R Guleria, Director of The All India Institutes of Medical Sciences. Then Dr. Nand Kumar, Organising Chairperson, and Shri Anil Aggarwal, Chairman of Ramjas College, addressed the audience and congratulated the organizers for the noble initiative.

The first event of the day was a vibrant dance performance by Four Steps India, a psycho-educational and therapeutic center. Dancing to the tunes of “Taare Zameen Par”, the special kids enthralled the audience and spread the message of ‘Disability is not an Inability’.

This was followed by a thought-provoking act performed by Zaahir, the dramatics society of Mental Health Foundation (India). The play spread a strong message of following your passion despite the societal expectations by charting the journey of a girl Saumya, who grew out of self-harm and achieved self-acceptance.

Later, an informative debate moderate by Dr. Saurabh Singh discussed the pros and cons of Mental Healthcare Act, 2017. Doctors from All India Institute of Medical Sciences talked about the Act from a patient as well as policy perspective. They also discussed the decriminalization of suicide and how over 50 million Indians who live with some form of mental illness suffer due to lack of awareness among the masses.

After the debate, the much-awaited dance completion took place. After clearing the preliminary rounds, two teams contested for the win. Advaita – the dance society of Keshav Mahavidyalaya tapped to the beats of peppy Bollywood hits, while the second team consisting of two dancers Ayushi and Vani gave a beautiful Bharatnatyam performance. The competition was judged by Mr. Prashant Sisodia, Entertainment Editor at NDTV.

At noon, the iconic Bharatnatyam dancer and Padam Shri awardee, Ms. Geeta Chandran graced the Mental Health Festival in the capacity of a Chief Guest. She spoke about how Indian classical dance reinforced positivity in her life. Natya Vriksha, a dance company founded by Ms. Geeta herself also gave a captivating dance performance which received a hearty applause.

The last event before the break was a symposium, moderated by Mr. Sanjeev Upadhyaya, which brought out varied viewpoints on the topic- Mental Health in the Workplace.  One of the panelists, Mr. Rajeev Chandran, Global Head of Accenture’s Leadership programme asserted that corporates must treat mental fatigue as a legitimate medical cause. Mr. Kaunain Sheriff, a senior correspondent of Indian Express, spoke about the stress that journalists are facing after the advent of social media in newsrooms. Overall, it was a very insightful discussion.

After the break concluded, the event continued with the same zeal with the Poetry Slam Competition, ‘Words Will Set You Free’. Participants from various colleges performed their moving pieces of the spoken word, that was followed by a special performance by slam maestro and jury memeber, Diksha Bijlani.

This was followed by public lecture and panel discussion, again, on the topic, ‘Mental Health at Workplace’ which was presented by AIIMS. The lecture was aided by an informative slide show and the focus of the discussion was on how mental illness should be recognised in the workplace, just like physical illness is. This event was followed by a short tea break in the foyer.

Right after, the fest resumed with the exciting Music Competition, ‘Creating Symphonies on the Go’ which had three excellent performances lined up by artists from different genres. The competition was judged by Ms Kamakshi Khanna and Ms Mandakini and was enjoyed thourougly by the audience.

The last event of the night was the closing performance by Manzil Mystics, choir group who performs traditional and folk Indian music. The group enthralled the audience and brought India’s first Mental Health Festival to an end.

 

Feature Image Credits: Shivam Sharma

Niharika Dabral
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Anagha Rakta
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