| Anyone know why only Indian Express Delhi Edition
| continues to bring out Architecture stories?
| One is rather concerned about the singularity of
| this media situation; it is almost as if only one
| small group of informants is feeding the media.
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=97426
SPA alumni assn contests ragging report
Express News Service
New Delhi, August 28: THE Alumni Association of the School of Planning &
Architecture (SPA) sought to clear the air over the ragging controversy
reported in the media this week. The association called a press
conference on Saturday to clarify facts about the incident reported by a
newspaper on August 26. According to them, the incident was misreported
as sexually abusive ragging.
The SPA Student Council fully endorsed the clarification given by the
Alumni Association.
‘‘The page one report, which stated that homosexuality and bestiality
were part of the ragging on the SPA campus, was clearly a case of yellow
journalism, as the report contained unverified and half-baked
sensationalised information. We have managed a correct version as
gathered from students of SPA. Three freshmen were asked to ‘enact’ an
act of sexual passion and ‘mimic’ copulation with a dog. No actual
stripping or physical act as stated in the report, was involved in the
incident,’’ said Nikhil Segel, treasurer of the SPA executive committee.
He added that regardless of the fact that it was mimicry, the
administration had taken a serious view of the incident one of the
freshmen filed a complaint. The complainant had identified three seniors
who were then suspended for three weeks and fined Rs 10,000 each. The
anti-ragging faculty squad also identified 6 other senior students who
were interacting ‘‘overzealously’’ with the freshers, and suspended
them. The students’ body had called a one-day boycott of classes to
protest these suspensions, but when apprised of the nature of the
ragging, they too fully endorsed the punishment handed out to the senior
students.
Meanwhile, the Human Resource Development Ministry ordered a
re-investigation of the case and all the freshers in the
institute—including the three who were ragged—were asked to give their
versions in-camera. Those charged with ragging were also interrogated
in-camera. The HRD enquiry report will be released soon.
Even as the alumni association apologised for the lack of interaction
with the press after the incident, they demanded an unequivocal apology
from the newspaper. ‘‘We demand an apology and clarification in the same
space and of the same size as the report they carried,’’ said Vijay
Garg, secretary, Alumni Association SPA.