POHOTTU AS USA’ S PROXY Part 8Lh
Posted on September 15th, 2022
KAMALIKA PIERIS
In Sri Lanka, sexual harassment is a criminal offence under Section 345 of the Penal Code. Ragging is a non-bailable offense leading to a prison term. Torture chambers are clearly criminal and have no place in a university. However, the university authorities and the police have been reluctant to squash such serious criminal activity inside the universities.
Students who have been ragged are scared to complain as they find that neither the University authorities nor the police wish to listen to them. But there was one exception. Ruhuna university undergrad Darsha Udayanga made a police complaint in 2019 regarding the ragging he had been subject to.
Darsha has made this complaint entirely on his own. Darsha was not the usual sort of captive student the IUSF had in mind. Darsha’s home was in Gampaha. Gampaha was highly urban and very close to Colombo. Darsha’s mother and brother were both graduates and Darsha himself had entered university at the first attempt. His mother and brother had met the VC regarding Darsha’ ragging and Darsha had been offered another university which Darsha refused. Darsha was confident and savvy.
Darsha was very angry about the way he was treated by the raggers. He said he did not come to university to experience any of this and he was not prepared to meekly tolerate the ragging Also he was neither impressed nor frightened of the IUSF at Ruhuna. He appeared in a You Tube clip, showing photos of each of the leaders who had ragged him, naming them and stating the role each had played in the sexual harassment.
Darsha had first approached the VC about the sexual harassment, who told him, Go to the police. I can’t handle this.” Darsha went to the police and managed to get the police to listen to him. Eventually after some delay, the Matara Police took 19 suspects into custody. (https://youtu.be/kpQ6WiInSQQ) .
This appears to have been a landmark event. It received publicity and helped expose the criminal ragging going on in the local universities. It led to many discussions on television and You Tube regarding sexual harassment in the university. Led by the articulate Darsha first, and then picked up by other students who had also experienced ragging.
Daily Mirror reported the event. 19 senior students of Ruhuna University were remanded after being arrested over an incident where a new student from Gampaha, Darsha Udayanga, had been inhumanly tortured during ragging, said Daily Mirror. They had been arrested after the victim student; seemingly a courageous boy had published the nightmare he had to undergo in social media and had held a media conference in August 2019 to explain the grisly experience that he had faced.
JVP hit back. IUSF Ruhuna had sent two Student Union members to Gampaha to investigate Darsha, to Darsha’s utter disgust. This IUSF pair then announced that Darsha had been sexually molested long before he came to University. A weak argument, which Darsha vigorously and contemptuously denied.
The IUSF then used You Tube to present its case. it gave an interview which came on You Tube hosted by SL Today in August 2019 under the title ලංකාවම කැළඹූ රුහුණ විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ නවකවද සිදුවීමේ ඇත්ත හෙලිවේ. (see https://youtu.be/iAwv3ZVD4TI )
The preamble to the video clip said රුහුණේ නවකවදය දීපු අයියල සෙට් එක මෙන්න. පසුගිය දිනක රුහුණ විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ ශිෂ්‍යයෙකු විසින් මාධ්‍ය හමුවක් සිදුකරමින් විශ්වවිද්‍යාල අභ්‍යන්තරයේ සිදුවන නවක වදය සම්බන්ධයෙන් හෙලිදරව්වක් සිදුකරන ලදී. එම හෙලිදරව්වට පිළිතුරු වශයෙන් රුහුණ විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ ශිෂ්‍ය ක්‍රියාකාරී කමිටුව විසින් අද දින මාධ්‍යය හමුවක් පවත්වමින් කියා සිටියේ විශ්වවිද්‍යාල අභ්‍යන්තරයේ කිසිදු නවකවදයක් සිදුනොවන බවත්, මෙම පැමිණිල්ල සාවද්‍ය බවත්ය. එමෙන්ම වැඩිදුරටත් ඔවුන් සඳහන් කලේ උපකුලපතිවරයා මෙහෙයවීමෙන් අදාල ශිෂ්‍යයා සාවද්‍යය පැමිණිල්ලක් සිදුකර ඇති බවයි. එයට සාක්ෂි ලෙස හඬපටයක්ද අද දින මාධ්‍ය වෙත ඉදිරිපත් කරනු ලැබුවා.
In this You Tube clip the speaker denied Darsha’s complaint that sexual ragging had taken place in Ruhuna. There is absolutely no sexual harassment taking place in Ruhuna University, the speaker said. This was a charge invented by the private universities to get more students.
The speaker said that Darsha’s complaint to the police was false. The Vice Chancellor was behind this. The VC had influenced Darsha to put forward a false complaint. No such rag has ever taken place.
There are 200 hostellers in Meddawatte hostel. They have not complained, said the speaker. Darsha was not staying in the Medawatte hostel, either. His name is not n the hostel list. What the speaker did not say was that Darsha had left the hostel after the ragging, and boarded elsewhere.
The IUSF speaker gave helpful statistics on the number engaged in criminal ragging in Ruhuna. He did so by giving us statistics of raggers who had been caught and punished by the university. A total of 135 students had been charged, he said, of which 19 were presently imprisoned, 11 banned from studies for life, and 37 expelled from hostel. Disciplinary inquires were pending against 42.
He also provided a breakdown by faculty. There were 19 currently arrested from Arts faculty. Leading officials of the Student Union are in this list. One is banned for life from University studies. Disciplinary inquires have started for five others. These students have been arrested on bogus charges, said the speaker.
In the Faculty of Management 9 were barred from University for life, disciplinary action taken against 23. In Faculty of Science 23 were charged. In Faculty of Technology 8 disciplinary inquires and one banned from University studies for life. In Medical faculty, disciplinary inquiry on 6. In Faculty of Health science 3 were banned from hostels. In engineering faculty, 8 were forbidden hostel facilities.
This video clip by the IUSF representative got 593 Comments. Not one comment agreed with the IUSF. Commentators wished instead to show their utter contempt of the IUSF activities and their firm belief that inhuman ragging and sexual harassment had definitely taken place at Ruhuna. Some comments are unprintable.
Here is a selection of the comments.
- Mee කියන්නේ බොරු mee ළමයි campus වලින් එළියට යවන්න
- thopi කරපු බලු වැඩ වලට දඩුවම් ලැබෙයි..ඉගෙන ගන්න ආවනම් ඒක කරගනියවු.මානසික ලෙඩ්ඩු වගේ වැඩ නොකර.අම්මලගෙ බඩේ හැදිල එලියට ආපු එවුන් නෙවෙයිද තො
- ubalawa campus yauwe aragala kara kara innada yako
- හෙනම ගහපියවු අහින්සක ජිවිතත් එක්ක සෙල්ලමි කරල ආතල් ගන්න තිරිසන්නුන්ට
- තොපිට හෙන ගහනවා !
- බොරු දෙසාබාන්ඩ එපා යකෝ මාධ්‍ය සාකච්ඡා තියල.කරපු ජරා වැඩ ඔක්කොම එලිවෙලා තියද්දි.දැන් තමයි නියම කොන්ද පන තියන උපකුලපති කෙනෙක් හම්බවෙලා තියෙන්නෙ.
- මනස විකෘති වූ උඹලා වගෙ කෲර හැතිකරෙව මර්ධනය නොවෙයි මරළා පාර අයිනෙ ගොඩ ගහන්න ඔනෑ.
- ඹ විදවන්නෙ සමහරවිට මේ ආත්මෙ නෙවෙයි.. ඒත් මේ ආත්මෙ උඹලා වදදෙන උං උඹලගෙ පිටිපස්සෙන් එයි දවසක..
- අනේ කාලකණ්නි බල්ලො තොපිල කරන දේ හරිද අවජාතක බල්ලො නවකවදය කාපු ලමයි සියදිවි නසාගත්ත මාධ්‍ය හරහා වීඩියෝස් දැම්ම ඒව බොරුද බල්ලො තොපිට හෙන ගහනව
- අපිත් university තමයි….අපි දන්නව ඇතුලෙ කරන දේවල්…උබල කියන්නෙ වාර්තා වෙලා නෑ කියලනේ..ඔව් තොපි වාර්තා කරන්න දෙන්නෑ…කරත් ගහල අයින් කරවනවා..
- මේ පකුන් අහිංසකයින්ට නවක වද දීලා දැන් ලැජ්ජ නැතුව කතාකරනවා
- Campus ආවනම් ඉගෙනගන්න ..ඔයගොල්ලො වගේ අසහනකාරයො තමයි සමාජගත වුනහමත් මේ රට විනාශ කරන්නෙ….
- පර බල්ලො අර අහිංසක කෙල්ලො ටිකක් කතා කරගන්න වත් බැරි විදිහට දීල තියෙන වදහිංසා උබ දකින්නෙ මොන විදිහටද තොට අම්ම අක්ක. නංගිල නැද්ද අවජාතක පාදඩයො…
- මු කියන බොරු
- තෝව අල්ලලා මරන්න තරම් කෙන්ත්යි
- Ane nikam hitapan pacha kelinne nathuwa.
- අනේ කොහොමද ඔයාලා ඔහොම කතා කරන්නෙ.. අපිත් campus ඉන්න ළමයි.අපි හොදට අහලා තියෙනවා ඔයි වගේ ගොන් කතා..සොහොදරවරුනි කිය කිය කියන්නෙම බොරු..ඔයාල හිතන් ඉන්නෙ campu ගිහිල්ලා අන්තරේට ගිහාම picket වල උගුර වේලෙනකන් කෑ ගැහුවම ඔයාල රටේ ජනාධිපති කියලද..කොන්දක් තියෙනවද ඔයාලට.අහිංසකයොන්ට වද දීලා වද දීලා ඔහොම බොරු කියන්න..මෙයාලට කොහොමත් හොද පුරුද්දක් තියෙනවා කොච්චර වැරදි කරත් මුකුත් නොදන්න බබාලා වගේ කතා කරන්න..ඒවට තමයි මෙයාලට degree තියෙන්නෙ..subject repeat වෙවී මේවා තමයි කරන්නෙ
- තොපේ මූනු වලින්ම පේනව තොපි ජඩ මැරයො කියල .අර ගැහැණු ළමයින්ට කරපු දේ .. ? අරයල ඇවිල්ල බේර ගත්තෙ නැත්නම් .
- පර බල්ලො.උප කුලපතිගෙ වැඩපිළිවෙළ හරියටම හරි.
- මුන් එකෙක් දෙකෙක් මරලම දැම්ම නම් ඉවරයි.
- Mekath owata sambanda da danna na
Youtube clips seen by me for Pt 8Lg and Pt 8Lh are listed below.
- Campus Rag episodes 1-3. starting with https://youtu.be/xwgadgBUr80
- https://youtu.be/6KZAsu1s3cw
- https://youtu.be/xwgadgBUr80
- https://youtu.be/jDizY7W5wPM
- https://youtu.be/02x3t9zFeNw
clips featuring Darsha Udyanga are: