A week after suicide by a hosteller for alleged pressure by the college staff, the Khalsa College management on Monday announced to postpone final examinations of 7,000 students for an indefinite time. The exams were scheduled to start on Tuesday.
As the agitation entered its sixth day on Monday, hundreds of students and parents raised slogans outside the college, demanding justice for Harpreet Singh, a B.Sc student for whose suicide three faculty members, including the principal, have already been booked. Teachers have been counter protesting to demand withdrawal of the suicide abetment case.
Khalsa College Governing Council president Satyajit Singh Majithia reached Amritsar on Monday and declared the postponement of examinations “until normalcy returns”.
“This unfortunate incident has saddened us all immensely, but the fallouts after the incident have aggravated the problem. To solve this problem I have come all the way from Delhi; but it calls for cooperation from every front, including students, teachers, administration and Harpreet’s family,” he said. “The protesting group of students must realise that people who are backing them are doing that for their political and personal interest, and they should be mature enough to understand that they are being misled.”
However, Harpreet’s father Yadvinder Singh, who is also part of the protest, while speaking with HT held the management responsible for his son’s suicide and alleged that the college authorities were unfair with Harpreet.
Yadvinder, who got the FIR registered against the principal, registrar and the head of the agriculture department for abetment to suicide; has been on strike demanding their arrest. The management has appointed an acting principal, HOD and registrar, but that has not ended the protest.
Satyajit Majithjia said, “As demanded, we have sent them (the three accused) home, and have asked them to stay there. Students are asking for the immediate suspension, but taking actions against such senior educationists without inquiry and evidence is not what educated people do. I believe ours is not a banana republic... If our decisions humiliate the professors, the management would be a bigger problem.”