Editorial-
Sikkim is unfortunately making it a habit of allowing substantial victories to lapse into muddled lost opportunities and major successes to fritter away uncelebrated and unacknowledged. One saw this happen with Sikkim’s most earnest movement to date - the ACT-led anti-hydel protest some years ago - and revisited the wreckage of promising possibilities this week with the manner in which the college protest sank after reaching a remarkable high.
To go over the sequence of events: student protest over the college fee hike by the HRD Department simmers on Saturday; On Monday a large delegation of students confronts the department, nothing materialises; On their return to campus, as they sit in protest on the highway, the police, in what is unanimously accepted as unnecessary and unprovoked, lathicharge them; Students fight back and a standoff sets in which is broken with a more aggressive lathicharge later in the evening. Meanwhile, the root cause of the student protest – the fee hike – is rolled back. This is a major achievement, but by the time the announcement limps into public domain, the students don’t even get to celebrate their victory because the protest has grown to include the police lathicharge. The students want action taken against the SP and the Sadar Thana in charge. The fee hike and the eventual roll-back lose prominence as the students versus police confrontation gains primacy. The next day, the cops are more controlled and an offer arrives of setting up an independent enquiry into the events of 14 July, day-One of the student protest, and the police action. This again is a major moral victory because students have secured a rare first of staring down the administration and pushing it to the back feet and into instituting a committee of enquiry. But there is either a communication gap or a major trust deficit when even this offer is rejected and the demand for the SP’s removal insisted upon. The district administration which showed impressive control and did not take action against the students despite the mob manhandling the DC and a group attacking his car in full public view earlier in the day, finally loses restraint when the DC is pushed around again. There was however only tear gas used this time to disperse the crowd. The stand-off continued, and on day-Three, many more groups and several more people marched to the college in support of the students. The college students decided to accept the offer for talks with the State Government and while they stay in campus, groups supporting their protest take over the highway. The supporters far outnumbered the protesters by now and the sloganeering and heckling of the police grows louder and more aggressive. The supporters expand the protest from the college and stretch it right up to the main town area. Shops are shut and traffic stalled. It is only a matter of time before violence arrives, and it does, starting with isolated incidents of moving vehicles being targeted by the protesters into a string of anarchic arson stretching the length of town. This is new to Gangtok, and ironically comes at a time when the students have finally been officially brought to the negotiation table. The protest on Wednesday slipped out of the control of the students and was battled by their supporters. Even as they grow restive in the college campus, violence rages outside.
This has now become something else and instead of a closure, what Sikkim and the protesting college students will receive is a festering wound of all round distrust. What happened in Gangtok on Monday in the hands of the police and Wednesday in the hands of protest supporters was wrong. Violence should not be condoned and cannot be justified irrespective of who unleashes it. Meanwhile, the gains, which, let’s accept it, were substantial, and were about more than just the commitments won and were also about a reiteration of youth power, a genuine support of the people at least on the first two days and a required humbling of the administration and the police which is always healthy in a democracy from time to time. But because the situation was allowed to keep deteriorating, it will now become more about frustrations, paranoia, anger, distrust, score-settling and suspicions. Unfortunate…
Sikkim is unfortunately making it a habit of allowing substantial victories to lapse into muddled lost opportunities and major successes to fritter away uncelebrated and unacknowledged. One saw this happen with Sikkim’s most earnest movement to date - the ACT-led anti-hydel protest some years ago - and revisited the wreckage of promising possibilities this week with the manner in which the college protest sank after reaching a remarkable high.
To go over the sequence of events: student protest over the college fee hike by the HRD Department simmers on Saturday; On Monday a large delegation of students confronts the department, nothing materialises; On their return to campus, as they sit in protest on the highway, the police, in what is unanimously accepted as unnecessary and unprovoked, lathicharge them; Students fight back and a standoff sets in which is broken with a more aggressive lathicharge later in the evening. Meanwhile, the root cause of the student protest – the fee hike – is rolled back. This is a major achievement, but by the time the announcement limps into public domain, the students don’t even get to celebrate their victory because the protest has grown to include the police lathicharge. The students want action taken against the SP and the Sadar Thana in charge. The fee hike and the eventual roll-back lose prominence as the students versus police confrontation gains primacy. The next day, the cops are more controlled and an offer arrives of setting up an independent enquiry into the events of 14 July, day-One of the student protest, and the police action. This again is a major moral victory because students have secured a rare first of staring down the administration and pushing it to the back feet and into instituting a committee of enquiry. But there is either a communication gap or a major trust deficit when even this offer is rejected and the demand for the SP’s removal insisted upon. The district administration which showed impressive control and did not take action against the students despite the mob manhandling the DC and a group attacking his car in full public view earlier in the day, finally loses restraint when the DC is pushed around again. There was however only tear gas used this time to disperse the crowd. The stand-off continued, and on day-Three, many more groups and several more people marched to the college in support of the students. The college students decided to accept the offer for talks with the State Government and while they stay in campus, groups supporting their protest take over the highway. The supporters far outnumbered the protesters by now and the sloganeering and heckling of the police grows louder and more aggressive. The supporters expand the protest from the college and stretch it right up to the main town area. Shops are shut and traffic stalled. It is only a matter of time before violence arrives, and it does, starting with isolated incidents of moving vehicles being targeted by the protesters into a string of anarchic arson stretching the length of town. This is new to Gangtok, and ironically comes at a time when the students have finally been officially brought to the negotiation table. The protest on Wednesday slipped out of the control of the students and was battled by their supporters. Even as they grow restive in the college campus, violence rages outside.
This has now become something else and instead of a closure, what Sikkim and the protesting college students will receive is a festering wound of all round distrust. What happened in Gangtok on Monday in the hands of the police and Wednesday in the hands of protest supporters was wrong. Violence should not be condoned and cannot be justified irrespective of who unleashes it. Meanwhile, the gains, which, let’s accept it, were substantial, and were about more than just the commitments won and were also about a reiteration of youth power, a genuine support of the people at least on the first two days and a required humbling of the administration and the police which is always healthy in a democracy from time to time. But because the situation was allowed to keep deteriorating, it will now become more about frustrations, paranoia, anger, distrust, score-settling and suspicions. Unfortunate…
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