Medical students are divided over the punishment meted out by the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) administration to two interns accused of ragging a student.
While several MBBS students believe IGIMS should have taken stern action against the duo, another section of students - who believe there is nothing wrong if juniors follow seniors' orders to some extent to maintain a good relationship - feels IGIMS took the right decision by going easy on the accused and merely debarring them from national-level competitions.
Ankit Karan, a second-year MBBS student of Patna Medical College, said if the ragging charges had been proven, the college should have suspended the accused students for at least six months.
"Fun and ragging are two different things," said Ankit. "In our college also, some of my fellow classmates took introduction of the freshers six months ago after which the juniors complained to the principal they were ragged. However, seniors taking simple introduction of their juniors in which they are made to sing and dance should not be considered ragging. Only those cases should be considered as ragging in which seniors have physically assaulted juniors or they have given them some kind of mental trauma. In case of IGIMS, if ragging has been proved, the administration should have suspended the accused students at least for six months because it would have sent a strong message to medical students about ragging."
Shuchi Smita, a final-year MBBS student at Patna Medical College, echoed Karan.
"If ragging charges have been proved, the accused students should have been given severe punishment," she said. "Imagine the agony of that victim; he would have to live with the same seniors in the campus and if the seniors are not given some serious punishment this time, they might attempt more heinous ways to torture him."
Jai Raj, a third-year MBBS student of Nalanda Medical College, felt IGIMS took the right decision by awarding minimum punishment.
"Ragging is wrong but giving severe punishment to the MBBS students for ragging would be too harsh for them," Jai said. "It takes a lot of hard work to compete in medical entrance examination and then get into a medical college. Even after doing MBBS, one has to work hard for getting admission through postgraduate entrance examination. If severe punishment is given to the students found involved in raging, their career would be ruined just because of one wrong act. The students should be counselled."
Ankit Kumar, a fourth-year student of IGIMS, also supported the decision. "Juniors have to maintain certain decorum," he said. "They need to respect their seniors. If seniors ask juniors to do something, they should obey it. This should not be called ragging. In fact if one treats his/her seniors in good way, they would be helping him/her throughout their course on campus. The juniors who were ragged some time ago repeat the same thing with their juniors when they become seniors. The IGIMS administration has done right by awarding little punishment to the accused students because here the incident is related to the senior-junior relationship."
"The college administration shouldn't follow a hard and fast rule while handing out punishments in cases related to ragging as it affects a student's career," said Rajeev Ranjan, an intern at IGIMS.
A third-year MBBS student of AIIMS-Patna, who did not want to be identified, said the punishment was eyewash. "Medical students hardly take part in national-level competitions; they are too busy with studies. The IGIMS administration has just tried to escape from the situation by debarring the accused students," he said. "If seniors order juniors, that is ragging. Just by being a senior, you don't have the right to treat juniors badly."
