POLITICS OF SUICIDES

The country had been through many upheavals in the past with many ups and downs in the social and political spheres. Some deaths and assassinations had caused nationwide protests and also killings of genocidal proportions.  But there had been a few suicides that shook the nation's conscience because of the relentless media coverage for days on end on these suicides and the political and social agitations.  There had been suicide of students who were pursuing their studies in the nation's premier institutes as they could not cope up with the peer pressure for performance.  The suicide of Rohith Vemula a PhD scholar from the central university in Hyderabad created a storm in political and social circles.  The media, in their eagerness to be the first among equals, tried to portray the suicide as a political game and paint the scholar as a candidate from a reserved category.  The political parties opposed to the ruling party in the center jumped into the bandwagon and cried themselves hoarse repeatedly against the government's alleged apathy towards the reserved category persons.  The government was forced to appoint an inquiry committee into the suicide and when the report was made public, again there were hue and cry. It appears that what the political parties arraigned against the ruling party in the center wants is for the central government to accept the responsibility for the unfortunate suicide of the person. 

If that is the case regarding the suicide of Vemula about a year or so earlier,  the recent suicide of a student, in Tamilnadu,  who was aspiring for higher studies beats all other political deaths in the country, hollow.  The student had scored a very good percentage of marks in the school final exam to get a decent seat in a professional college.  The politics in the state on the issue of the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) as ordered by the Supreme Court is the main issue that is driving the present aftermath of the sad and unwarranted suicide of the girl.  While there are many claims of that girl having appeared the test and scored very low as against her excellent score in school final exams, there are counter claims that the girl did not appear at all for the test.  This girl is reportedly coming from a family of very poor means who could not afford to get her coached by any special institute or classes for the test.  She reportedly did not even possess a decent pair of footwear in a state where the former Chief Minister was reportedly having thousands of pairs of footwear.  Be that as it may, the girl had some remarkable intelligence to have been able to graduate from the school with such an excellent score.  When the NEET became a reality in the state of Tamilnadu, many students were expecting the state government to tackle it with an ordinance or a law passed by the state for getting exemption for the students of the state.  Despite such an action on the part of the government, there was a problem as the order of the supreme court was binding and the act might not stand legal scrutiny.   A case was filed against holding the NEET for selection of students for admission to medical colleges in the supreme court by a set of people from Tamilnadu.

The case is reportedly filed by people who don't want to have such a national level test to determine the eligibility for admission to the medical colleges in the country.  The reports in many media and speculations in the social media point to those people who had set up private medical colleges at huge investments of money, as it deprives them of getting students from whom they can get huge sums of money for admission.  In the last few years, a seat in a private medical college is reportedly sold for a sum in excess of INR 10 or 20 million. If a student gets admission in a college after having paid such a huge sum as donation for getting a seat, how the society expects him to be humane in treating the people and be moderate in chargin fees. No wonder the cost of healthcare is spiraling upwards year after year. In a recent nationally televised interview, chairman of one of the renowned hospitals in Tamilnadu, openly said that poor people cannot afford his hospital; as the ICU rentals for a day is about INR 10,000/-.  He absolutely had no qualms being on the tape and admitting that his hospital, with all the modern facilities is only for the rich and influential and not for poor and common people.   

Be that as it may, this girl impleaded herself in the ongoing case against NEET in the Supreme Court.  Any person who would like to implead oneself into a case should have a very strong basis for the same and should be financially strong sufficiently to meet the expenses.  In this instant case, the girl had a strong base in that she was an aspiring student for a medical seat and given her position and reservation available, if the admissions had been based on the school final results and marks thereof, she might have got a seat.  But was she financially well off to fight a case at the highest court in the land?  The answer will be definitely in the negative.  Then who financed her to file an affidavit to implead herself in the case and who financed her for engaging a lawyer in Delhi for this, to stay in Delhi are some of the questions that arise. Another very important question that is being debated is what was the need for the unknown Good Samaritan who financed this girl in her above venture and what benefit he/she was going to get out of that.   The answers for all these questions are as elusive as an electric eel. 

The questions may not get the answers but the death has sparked a violent reactions from a section of students fanned by a few political leaders and fringe leaders by their provocative speeches.  The death is a sad reminder to the people of Tamilnadu that the death of a student may bring in some political turmoil and changes.  The speeches of some of the political leaders in the state are reinforcing this belief. The quality of education in almost all the so called BIMARU states had gone up substantially and the standard of education in the once much touted Tamilnadu is slipping towards the nadir and race to the bottom breakneck speed.  Instead of improving the quality of the education overall in the state, the state political leaders are instigating the students against the national level tests. What agitation that is required now isagainst the huge donations some of the private medical colleges collect in the name of management quota for giving seats to students from rich and influential background and for improving the quality of education and valuation.   Why Tamilnadu is the only state where there is no Navodaya Vidyalaya where the cost of education is much lower when compared to any private school and from where many people get selected to professional courses of study after acing the entrance tests at all India level?

All said and done, the family has lost a brilliant daughter who might have become the star of the family and a leading light of the community. But the politicization of the death is something that is abhorring to the senses of common men. The students of the state who are agitating against the NEET under the provocation of some of the political leaders and agitate saying that social equality is being trampled upon by this test, will do well to remember that there are people in other states who are also equally poor or come from very poor background or reserved category to take this test. The students will also have to remember that their strength is being misused by the political leaders for fanning hatred against a section of the society or the national leaders or a party to get back to be the ruling party members.  It is unfortunate that there is no political or social  leader who is directing the students in a proper way and every one is using them for their short term goal. Even celebrity people of the state are falling in line to instigate their fans against such national level test, which is a great disservice to the nation. The unfortunate death of a student is being used by all and sundry in the state to become a ruling party.  It is high time that the students in the state realize this and start working towards bettering their future than wasting their precious time on all these meaningless agitations.