Student unions are new moral police in Mumbai

BLACK OUT: The law, unfortunately, is no deterrent for student unions who are behind most of the attacks.

Ads by Google

ibnlive.com is on mobile now. Read news, watch videos
be a Citizen Journalist. Log on to m.ibnlive.com NOW!

Related Stories

• Face-blackening cases give Mumbai cops red face

• Mumbai's mob justice: parents thrash school Principal

• Fatwa to blacken Taslima Nasreen's face

Photogallery

Find us on Facebook | Join IBNLive community

Stay ahead with G-Talk Buddy | Click now!

  

Mumbai: A Wilson College professor suffered the indignity of being dragged through the streets, his face blackened, all without much resistance in June this year.

A lecturer at the JJ School of Arts in Mumbai too did not dare to put up a resistance when he was attacked by a group of women activists just last week.

And as the number of face blackening incidents keep multiplying in the city, the police are at their wits' end.

Says Joint Commissioner of Police (Law & Order), K L Prasad, "It's just taking the law into their own hands."

The law, unfortunately, is no deterrent for student unions who are behind most of the attacks and who are all affiliated to political parties.

"Right from college days, the members of these student unions want to behave like small-time politicians," says K L Prasad.

There have been five cases of face blackening in the last four months itself:

* The latest incident took place on August 8, when the Shiv Sena's student wing attacked a teacher, for alleged indecency.

* A week before that, a lecturer from the prestigious JJ School of Arts was attacked by the Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena, for allegedly molesting a student.

* In July, a teacher at the Mithila English High School was attacked by NCP and Sena activists.

* Before that, two doctors of a municipal hospital in Thane were attacked by Shiv Sena activists.

* In April, the NCP attacked a doctor Chhatrapati Shivaji hospital in Kalwa for alleged sexual harassment. It turned out to be the wrong doctor.

The list can go on, but the police say are helpless for 'face blackening' is, after all, a bailable offence and involves too much red tape.

Says K L Prasad, "If there is a summary procedure, then people would know they will not get jobs and hence they will not resort to this."

However, nothing seems to be a deterrent for this moral police. As Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena President, Abhijit Panse puts it, "The youth of this country don't need permissions from anyone to deliver justice."