Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad   

Tough cop's soft skills to the fore

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD Oct. 22. Ragging in a fairer sense is a form of breaking ice between two relatively unknown groups, and the Police Commissioner, M.V. Krishna Rao, did just that during his interaction with medicos at an anti-ragging sensitisation programme organised at the Gandhi Medical College on Tuesday as part of welcoming the freshers.

The Commissioner donned the roles of a friend, philosopher and guide apart from the tough cop to send a strong signal to the students fashioning the idea of torment their juniors in the name of ragging. The friend in him came out as he struck a lively conversation with the students enquiring about the absence of music and dance at such a function. "I will organise a party for you where we all can sing and dance and make friends,'' he declared.

He spoke in a lighter vein about his "old age'' and his young DCP, C.V. Anand, and he went down memory lane seeing the resplendently clad students. As the students responded positively clapping and even by whistling, he turned a philosopher explaining how one should enjoy life without hurting others. "There are many ways to have fun in the college than ragging and students should explore the unharmful methods.''

The "guide'' in the "cop'' came out when he asked the students themselves to lead the anti-ragging campaign by releasing the posters rather than himself releasing them. He called the "most beautiful'' girl from the gathering to release the posters and not surprisingly many girls responded. Of course, he picked up his own choice too livening up the atmosphere.

But the tough cop in him was unambiguous when he declared that if any ragging was reported from the college, he would leave the scene and the local Inspector would take over to deal with the situation. And the tone and tenor of the message was quite sharp.

While the students enjoyed his approach of sending a strong message in a friendly way there were quite a few embarrassing moments too. While his continued stress on "beautiful girls'' coming onto the stage made the girls a bit embarrassed, it gave a chance to the back-benchers to let out cat calls.

Later, the DCP Central Zone, C.V. Anand, made it clear to the students that ragging would not be tolerated and they would be punished as per the A.P. Prohibition of Ragging Act 1997. He said the purpose of organising the programme was to sensitise the students on the laws and the punishment the violators attract. He reminded them that four students were arrested last year from the same college under the Act, for the first time in the State.

Dr. Meenakshi, Principal, Dr. Pradeep Deshpande and Dr. Subramanyam, Vice-Principals, also spoke. First year students along with their parents apart from senior students were present.

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