The devils called raggers: a curse on us the people

By Gayathri Hewagama

The other day I was wondering what I should write of for this week’s LAKBIMAnEWS and happened to take a look at Aysha Aseef’s article on anti-raggers. And it so happened, ironically, I too had an urge to write of this horrendous phenomenon of ragging; a much talked about yet not much ‘done about’ topic of current relevance.
It is indeed absolutely disheartening to read of the atrocities that students have to go through daily, at the hands of this breed of raggers who most ironically claim to stand for the rights of various people. Wherever you turn in the campus premises, you see numerous posters and banners which either threaten the Government ordering it to grant student rights, or demand the university administration to release imprisoned criminals, considering their students status. Thus, it is a case of a classic paradox where the very “magnanimous” beings who clamour and howl in the name of student rights and what not, at the same time take away the rights of a countless number of other human beings.
Since I am vocally against any kind of ragging, each time I happen to pass by the student union of the university where I work, the wolf in sheepskin glares at me with his narrow psychotic eyes forgetting the fundamentals that he should ideally pay at least a little respect to the staff members of the university (...where they eternally waste their time). Just one look at those eyes and I realize the humongous amount of hate in them simply for the fact that I am absolutely against the taking away of human freedom. Each time I see those eyes, my blood boils for these demons in human guise still dare hover on the face of the earth.
And then, how much do we really “do” in order to shun these psychotics from society? How many measures do we actually take in order to rid the world of these devils in disguise? Not much. Yes. Nothing much. Or, perhaps, what we can actually do falls short of the goal or becomes inadequate in ridding us of this canker that continues to spread to each new incoming batch of students.
However, if the devils cannot be dealt with by diplomacy and compromise, and if whatever false agreements made between them and those few who speak against ragging come to nothing, the only option left to be adopted is to address the animals in their own animal language. Surely this is not a case of ‘making devils school the devils.’ This is in fact a case of adopting the most effective method available to rid society of its evil-doers.
Yes, we all do talk, and that too, endlessly of the injustice of ragging. We do feel for those of you who go through unmentionable atrocities. Yet we also forget. We also forget several days into the incident, that an incident ever happened. I too suffer from the same malady. I too forget, busy with daily occupations, my responsibility towards those who do not want to suffer at the hands of a demented lot.
What is needed at the present hour, I believe, is action from the highest authority of the country.
The President himself needs to look into the absolute degradation of student psychology that the demented lot wreaks within the university system. As it is, the Prevention of Ragging Act is only a dead letter. Much more severe measures need to be taken on the direct demand of the highest authority, so that there would not be loopholes through which these demons can sneak out.
Such psychos in the truest sense of the word, need to be publicly shunned. They should be publicly punished so that the rest of them who lurk in those nooks and crannies and dark alleys of demonic dirt will learn their lessons and be converted back again into human status. As it is desperate times call for desperate measures, and it is for the respective ministers and the President himself to talk to these student victims and feel (not just understand) how desperate the times actually are. As concerned citizens, we can only make our desperate appeals.