A 27-year-old Dalit student commits suicide in a prestigious research institute while itsadministration calls it a death because of a love affair, the students allege that the administration has failed in its duties
Vidhi Choudhary, Delhi
To the horror of his friends, Linesh Mohan Gawle, a second year PhD student from the NationalInstitute of Immunology (NII), Delhi, was found frothing from his mouth in his hostel roomon Saturday morning, perhaps because he consumed a chemical from the laboratory. He wasdeclared 'brought dead' by Fortis hospital soon after.
"We cannot believe our friend is not with us anymore," said a fellow student, on condition ofanonymity. "It is a sin to openly dissent at NII, unlike in JNU, where students can at least speak their hearts out without fearing butchery of their degree and career. There is just no protocol to check teachers' behaviour with students so we cannot afford to come out openly against anyone who terrorises us on campus, like JNU students can," he lamented. NII is affiliated with the School of Life Sciences, JNU.
"Suicide is an ultimate step a person takes when all other support systems have failed. For every one suicide like this, we can assume ten others who might just cross the line," said Kamalini Mukherjee, a JNU student researching on the subject of suicide. Even though the science research institute claims of 'excellent counselling services' on campus, the students allege that they are not satisfactory since students are increasingly resorting to death, as a way out of stress.
"If we say we want to work from home, we're forced to stay in hostel, and made to over-work inlabs, including on weekends, without any upper limit on hours we spend there. The 'best student'is made out to be the one who makes excellent presentations on weekends. The rest of us aretargeted and shamed publicly, week after week, if we're falling short of Sunday-standards thatseem to endlessly increase," confessed another student.
"We're living like slaves here, unable to satisfy our masters, and some of us, like Linesh, just snap when we're unable to tolerate more," alleged a student.
On the administration's stance that it was a 'love affair' or a 'personal problem' that stressedhim and led to suicide, there seems to be no one on campus who has heard of Gawle's partner, while most seem to connect with his depressed state of mind, revealing the urgent needof a positive, structural change in the way NII staff treats students.
"We want an impartial enquiry into the incident as Linesh was a bright, promising student, whoeven scored 98 percent marks in the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) test, nota small task," said Sandeep, president of All India Students' Association (AISA), JNU. "This is a case of dalit oppression by upper caste elites, who dominate everywhere, including ineducational institutions," alleged Shephalika Shekhar, also from JNU.
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