students across telangana took a pledge against committing suicide, recently. as you can see in the video, they were very ably guided by their teachers and professors, people actually leading the separatist movement.
psychologists will tell you: suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
none of those leaders have ever given the impression that telangana is a temporary problem. in all their writing, speeches and other mobilizing efforts, they've always made it very clear that telangana is definitely not a temporary problem. should those teachers be leading a campaign to stop student suicides? please read what the news report says:
As part of this campaign, JAC chairman M Kodandaram on Wednesday administered a pledge to the students of Osmania University that they will not resort to suicides but would continue to take active part in the fight for separate Telangana state. [emphasis mine].were the professors trying to seek a pledge to stop suicides or extract a promise to keep dying?
i have several issues with the way this campaign has been taken up: it's first and foremost a publicity exercise, a political ploy to keep the students in a sustained state of unrest and tension. because it's the students who can keep the fires burning, even by literally burning themselves.
a change of environment is what health professionals would suggest to people living in stressful environments. should the professors and activists have even been around when the students were taking the pledge?
and the media, in its own bumbling ways, has been adding more fuel to the fire by being very judgmental. suicide is cowardice, they tell the students. and the professors extend that argument by saying: you should live and fight for your cause. have been checking several websites offering advice on how to help people with suicidal tendencies and all of them agree: never be judgmental.
Posts
4 comments:
Students welfare or wellbeing will be the fourth or fifth priority following the grand scheme of the Indian caste system. Who gives a shit ?
The campaign is as you said extracting promises that they will continue to suffer the present stressful environment which is the enabler of suicides while offering a lip service of "no suicide".
A bit like extracting promises from wives that they will continue to get beaten from their husbands but not divorce.
'A bit like extracting promises from wives that they will continue to get beaten from their husbands but not divorce.'
hmm. a bit like that, yes. they're slowly making a regular protests a part of the curriculum. which is fine, from one angle (students shouldn't remain isolated from the rest of society)-- but how many sections of the oppressed population enjoy those kind of privileges? can farmers or farm workers, for instance, afford to stage protests in such a regular fashion?
What exactly is your angle here ? I used to think that some protest is good rather than being completely indifferent. But I am not so sure when it comes to the protests of telangana sort which at the root are fascist- it is not a good fight that these students are fighting.
We witnessed massive protests by OC students against mandal and many hindutva based protests and we dont admire them. Why make an exception to t separatist protests.
kiran,
no angle there, kiran. i am not a politician. or an agitator with a twisted agenda. i do agree i'm an activist of sorts, but it's an activism based on democratic principles. i believe in everyone's right to protest, whatever their agendas. which makes me quite different from the telangana separatists whose interpretation of democracy is that everyone should speak in one voice. so, if i thought the separatists shouldn't be allowed the space they seek, i would become as undemocratic as they are. we can't challenge their agenda by adopting their methods.
Post a Comment