Hypocrisy in the student movement

Why are there no incidents of ragging being reported from the private universities in Sri Lanka while brutal and barbaric criminal activities committed in the guise of ragging in state universities have made the entire so-called students movement a mockery? Here lie both the reason and the remedy for the inhuman ragging in state universities. 

The Buddhist and Pali University’s administration office has closed the university from December 19 until further notice following serious incidents of ragging and indiscipline among a section of the students having been reported. The incidents reported are incredibly disgraceful since the university is mainly meant for training future leaders who could mobilize the masses according to the teachings of the Compassionate Gautama. Nobody should find holes in Gautama’s teaching for this situation. It is the decadence in the administration of the institution.
We have been editorially commenting on the worsening situation in state universities due to ragging for the past several years. Unfortunately, we seem to have to press the authorities in this regard for at least another decade, at the rate of things moving. 

We have been unfortunate to hear about serious incidents such as deaths and suicides since far back as 1975 owing to senior students physically torturing the first year students in universities. To recall some of the victims of those incidents that shook the country, Rupa Ratnaseeli (Peradeniya university - attempted suicide and paralyzed in 1975 and committed suicide in 2002), Chaminda Punchihewa, (Ruhunu - died of ragging in 1993), Prasanga Niroshana, (Angunakolapelessa Schools of Agriculture - died of ragging)  S. Varapragash - Peradeniya  died of ragging in 1997), Kelum Thushara  Wijetunge (Ampara Hardy college of  Technology - died of ragging in 1997) and two more female students – (Ruhunu - attempted suicide). Apart from these, Samantha Vithanage, a third year Management student of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, who pioneered an anti-ragging campaign, was killed on November 7, 2002 while at a discussion on stopping the brutal practice of ragging in the faculty.
The psychopathic mindset of some of the students was well manifested in 2017 when it was found that a group of students of the Peradeniya University had rented a house in Megoda Kalugamuwa on Galaha Road for the very purpose of stripping first year students and subject them to severe physical torture. 

Some students of the same university had brutally assaulted the former vice Chancellor of the university and his son damaged his house over a vehicle collision, a few days ago. Even if the VC’s son’s car had knocked down a motorbike belonging to student as they claim, they cannot take the law into their hands, just because they are large in number.  

In August, 2018, the then Higher Education Minister Wijayadasa Rajapakshe had said that  nearly 2000 students who entered universities had left them during the previous two years, due to inhuman ragging by the senior students. Rauff Hakeem when he was the Higher Education Minister told Parliament in 2019 that ragging had forced 1987 students to abandon higher education in state universities. However, he had not specified the duration of the students having left universities. Apart from this hundreds of affluent students who are selected to the state universities opt to attend private universities here and abroad just to evade ragging. 

The annual intake of students for all state universities in the country is around 40,000. And over 2000 students are leaving and dodging those universities annually not due to poverty, or lack of hostel facilities or any other facilities, but due to the beastly activities of a set of psychopaths. Where is the university administration? Where are the so-called student union leaders who take to streets even at the drop of a hat, claiming that the free education is in danger? Should we accept that these union leaders are not in a position to stop this nonsense for good? Where are the political parties that provoke students through their student unions to demonstrate on all 365 days of the year, in the name of students’ rights? They accuse the government was taking oppressive measures against students, while at the same time opening up opportunities for the government to take such oppressive measures. 
It is the administration of each university that has to take the blame for this situation, as they have failed to bring peace to universities for the past several decades. They should take a class in administration from the administrators of private universities.