Chennai Corner

Bus Day
The reason why Bus Day evokes fear and anger among citizens and found an echo in the Madras high court ( to stop the hijinks of students) was there for all to see this week, when 30 cops, six members of the public and four students were injured in stone pelting from aggrieved Pachiappa Collegians. It was yet another Bus Day gone wrong, this time even violent, and finally the cops stepped in to enforce the law.

The Madras high court had earlier this week berated the Police Commissioner T. Rajendran for allowing students to engage in rowdy revelry at the cost of fearful commuters and chaotic traffic. “Why don’t you take action against those behind the Bus Day celebrations?” was the demand by Justice D Murugesan and Justice B Rajendran, earning people’s unabashed gratitude that some authority had finally stood up to bell the cat.

Students taking part in Bus Day – which may have started as an annual ritual with good intentions but has turned into unadulterated rowdyism over the years – were consequently in a rebellious state after they realized that they could not continue the “celebrations” unfettered. It did not help that they saw some senior cops crossing the laxman rekha – cops cannot enter colleges suo moto although the law does not stop them from enforcing it on the roads – and turned violent. But obviously smarting from the rap on the knuckles by the court, the cops reacted with a lathicharge. Their defence is that only a few cops entered the college to complain to the principal about the unruly behaviour of the 100 students who took a bus from Broadway to their college to celebrate Bus Day.

A hail of stones raining down on them triggered the lathicharge. Rajendran says, “Public life and property was endangered. The Inspector of Police (Kilpauk) E. Rajeswari suffered a head injury…we had no other option but to chase the students.”

Chennai citizens must recall that the cops did not exercise that option on November 12, 2008 when they were mute witnesses to a caste clash virtually at the gate of the government law college. Students of the college brutally assaulted their classmates with clubs and iron rods, leaving three seriously injured, while cops watched.

But there is another side to police inaction too. In the words of a former top cop, “The police presume that if a student is attacked, the situation will turn against the police especially with elections around the corner.”

And here’s the kicker from a former judge, referring to what happened in the court complex in February 2009, “The police had the guts to enter the high court to beat up advocates, even some judicial officers and damage court property, but they do not have the guts to face these students who ride on the roof of buses?”

A tradition gone awry
It’s a tradition that has gone out of hand. Bus Day was meant to be a celebration by college students to express their affinity towards a favourite bus route. A friend who did her post-graduation in Presidency college in the early 80s says, “It was a bit of kiss and make up on the part of the students who had hassled drivers throughout the year.” That’s how it began decades ago when students would give sweets/ flowers to the driver and conductor who took them to college every day.

But even back then, if it was Bus Day, girl students would stay at home lest they get caught in the crossfire when boys (to be fair, not all boys) got boisterous. Back then too it was unruly but with Madras being a smaller city with lesser traffic and lesser students and fewer colleges, Bus Day (which is observed through February) was not something commuters dreaded. Now they do as college after college observe Bus Day romps, as the academic year draws to a close and students get ready to say goodbye to studies and the carefree life that goes with it and swap it for a job and the responsibilities. So Bus Day can be viewed as a parting kick to the footloose and fancy life.

But after the hooliganism that was unleashed as students danced on the roof of buses or hung onto windows, even burst crackers on the road, it was evident that Bus Day had gone from something meant to be innocent fun to something downright dangerous.

Are the authorities sleeping?
And all the vandalism has cost the taxpayer because he will have to cough up the ticket fare, damage to the seats, windscreens, seat handles and the doors.

If the cops have shied away, so has the Metropolitan Transport Corporation whose buses are hijacked by the students. MTC officials say, “We stopped giving permission to such celebrations five years ago. Now the entire drama happens in front of the police and it is for them to act.” The police counter saying neither the MTC nor colleges complain. While cops are gripped by inertia, education authorizes say that since only a few of the dozens of colleges are involved, these colleges could stop their students.

The drivers, who take the brunt of students dancing “spiritedly” on their buses or even making them drive slowly to keep pace with those who walk, dance or burst fire-crackers on the road, are livid. “When students dance on top of the bus, I feel as if they are dancing on my head,” says a stressed-out driver. Many commuters who watch the spectacle go home and make their children promise not to do unto others what is done to them.

It’s pass the buck time because no one wants to handle the issue and now Bus Day means commuters cower in fear, traffic becomes chaotic and even former students, who are nostalgic about how they distributed sweets to commuters and favourite drivers, say they are “ashamed at what is going on in the name of Bus Day.”

Additional commissioner of police, law and order, Shakeel Akhter, says that during his time as a student back in 1985,“it used to be a pleasant experience when we presented gifts to bus crew members.” The police want students to celebrate Bus Day without getting on the wrong side of the law. “If we take legal action against them, it will affect their lives,” he says.

The court bells the cat
It was not just Bus Day that vexed judges. They even brought up another issue which is a sore point for citizens here – drag racing. It happens on Marina and Elliots’ beach where you have groups of youth zipping on their motorcycles, not just during the night but even during peak hours. “Are we living in an orderly country? Maintain at least some law and order,” the judges rapped the commissioner on his knuckles. And added for good measure: “Bring those people to book. Those who are conducting the race should not even be enlarged on bail.” Amen.

Cocking a snook at the helmet rule is something people don’t even think about even if it means they are endangering their own lives. “They may be increasing the burden of neurosurgeons at crowded government hospitals,” says Dr J Amalorpavanathan, head of the state’s cadaver transplant registry. Here’s a figure that should make everyone sit up – there are 2.5 lakh cases of traffic violations and they include not wearing a helmet. The bench was not impressed when the government pleader threw these figures, saying violations were heading north only because the authorities don’t take action!

Justice Kalifulla takes a bow
Speaking of judges and the police, Justice F M Ibrahim Khalifullah, the most senior judge in the Madras High Court, who disposed of 65,426 cases during his 11-year stint was given a warm farewell this week. He has been transferred to the Jammu and Kashmir High Court. He was sworn in as judge on March 2, 2000 after practicing at the bar previously.

Justice Khalifullah had made headlines (albeit inadvertently) when the letter written by Justice Reghupathi (now retired) was put on record by him in court. The letter had detailed how the head of the bar council R K Chandramohan (now suspended by the court) approached Reghupathi to influence him (on behalf of former Telecom minister A Raja).

Justice Kalifullah made it possible for Tamil Nadu to be the first state in the country to make it mandatory for the state government to pick a Director General of Police on the basis of a panel of officers it sent to the UPSC and not just someone it chose to. When he first ruled that such a panel be sent, the state government had appealed against it in the Supreme Court. But when the government lost the appeal, the DGP it had appointed (Letika Saran) had to resign.

Justice Kalifullah had observed, “There is nothing in the file which would indicate that the relative merits and demerits of the officers concerned (that included the fire service chief R Nataraj, who is a year senior to Letika) were considered, except a typed note prepared by some unknown officials. The file does not disclose any proper selection process.”

After that embarrassment, the government forwarded a panel of officers, but picked Latika Saran again. Last heard Natraj has gone to the Central Administrative Tribunal to contest his junior being made DGP. But in a situation where governments make such senior appointments on political lines, he might get his chance if AIADMK’s Jayalalitha comes to power.