Arunachalee students manhandled at Tamil Nadu

It is really sad and heartening to know that around 30 students of Arunachal Pradesh studying at KSR Polytechnic, Thiruchengode, Namakkal District in Tamil Nadu were roughed up by local students numbering around 1000 and beaten mercilessly with iron rods, levers, stones etc., seriously injuring one Nyishi and one Apatani boy of that institute and making the rest flee at dead midnight to the nearby forest; on instigation by the Principal of that Institute.

The reason-The Arunachal Times reports:-

"........... the issue that led to the crisis was the attempt of the college principal to send back three AP (Arunachal Pradesh) students during the mid academic session citing unavailability of seats at the college. Upon this, some senior AP students took up the matter with the latter and urged him against doing injustice since the students had already spent five months studying at the college.

Not being able to enforce his say, the principal in turn is said to have instigated the local students who picked up the fight with the AP students at the dead midnight."

Was it (the attempt to send back students) the real reason or is it that like the northern states, the southern states has prejudice for the people from Arunachal Pradesh or for that matter the entire North-Eastern States? It was common for the people from this part of the country to be deregatorily addressed as the Chinks, Bahadur (literally 'brave' but used otherwise in the context of NE people) if you were at National Capital or the other northern states but such discrimination was unheard of at south. One of my friend who graduated from Chennai swears by the simplicity of the southern people but I guess he would change his view about the South after knowing the incident. In another incident, the students from NE states at one of the Technical College at Tamil Nadu were threatened expulsion from hostel by the hostel authority for no fault of theirs.

If discrimination is not the reason, isn't the institute supposed to accomodate the students from Arunachal Pradesh as per the directive of Ministry of Human Resource Development?

Unavailability of seats? Can you digest it? First the students were admitted and allowed to attend classes for around half the academic session and are suddenly told to leave the institution as there was no seat. Isn't it funny? How on earth, an Institution let students take addmission if there are no seats? Or was the institute trying to accomodate the students from other states against payment quota against the seat reserved for students from NE states?

For the incident, I wouldn't blame the institute alone but the State Government also. This happened due to the lackadaisical attidute of Department of Higher & Technical Education towards sending the students from this state for higher education (see also Callousness of Deptt. of Higher & Technical Education). The department never bothers to verify the credential of the college, availability of seats, commencement of academic session, courses/branches offered etc. Had it checked the credentials and other details the entire episode wouldn't have happened.

Now, the question is whether the state Government will step forward and bring the matter to the notice of Government of Tamil Nadu to bring the culprit to book? Even if it does, what about the future of those students? How would the government compensate for their loss?

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