In a disturbing video that has emerged recently, which has gone viral on Social Media since then, two brothers from Kendriya Vidyalaya, Muzzafarpur are shown to be bullying one of their classmates. The brothers, Vishal and Vikki in classes 12 and 11 respectively recorded the incident on camera which shows them thrashing Uttam Kumar, another student of class 12. The video was apparently made to intimidate their fellow students.
Vishal and Vikki are sons of a notorious local gangster, Shashi Bhushan, who is serving time at Muzaffarpur Central jail. The video shows the brothers punching and kicking the victim who is seen screaming for help. The bullies then proceeded to use their belts and shoes on the poor boy. Apparently, it wasn’t the first time the Uttam had been beaten by the brothers. Uttam has revealed that the brothers had beaten him up earlier as well.
The details that have emerged since then have revealed that the Apples haven’t fallen far from the tree. According to Uttam, the brothers threatened to murder him if he reported it to the school authorities. Uttam says, “Both the boys, who are actually brothers, beat me up. They threatened me not to report the incident to anyone or else they would kill me. They also threatened that they would not let me appear for my exams if I reported the matter to the school principal”.
Bullying in Indian schools is rampant which often does not receive the attention it deserves. According to a Pan-India study by research agency IMRB and ParentCircle involving 2700 respondents including both parents and students in equal number, every third child in India is bullied. It often becomes difficult for the school administration to tackle bullying as the victims are often reluctant to come forward as they are often threatened by their bullies with dire consequences.
Parents and School teachers, unwittingly or through sheer negligence, often perpetuate the vicious cycle of bullying.
Some parents don’t want their wards to bring their problems from school at home and settle them then and there. More often, parents cannot comprehend the severity of the issue when their wards confide in them or cannot interpret the signs which reveal that their ward is facing some serious problems at school. Teachers, on the other hand, quite often do not want to interfere in the matters of students or do not take the complaints seriously when the victim gathers enough courage to report it.
The bullies themselves more often than not come from troubled backgrounds. In the present situation, the brothers are the sons of a gangster who’s serving jail time and has several charges of murders and kidnapping against him. The video quite clearly reveals that the brothers are well on their way towards walking on the footsteps of their father. It would be prudent to send them to a correctional facility for their own safety but mostly due to the safety of the society at large. As of now, the bullies have been suspended for 10 days but it is highly advisable that they’re sent to a correctional facility for their antisocial behavior.
Politicians, meanwhile, are doing what politicians do best, play politics over the issue to salvage any sort of political mileage that might be available. The JDU alleged an attempt by the Center to cover up the entire issue. JDU spokesperson Ajay Alok says, “It is shocking how this entire matter which happened on August 25 was downplayed by the school principal. Since the Kendriya Vidyalayas come under the Union HRD Ministry, there was a concerted attempted to cover up by the Center.” It seems Ajay Alok is suffering from the Kejriwal syndrome where the patient sees the Central government behind everything wrong in the world. It is quite probable that the Principal was hesitant to take action due to the criminal background of the brothers’ family and he must be punished for not performing his duty which put his students at risk. We have witnessed in recent times that political discourse have fallen to a new low but playing politics over the lives of our children is something we could all resist.
The case has again revealed the power of Social Media. If not for Facebook and Twitter, it is quite possible that the act of bullying would have escaped justice and their classmates would have continued to be victimized. Since then, the enormous amount of attention has gotten the police involved. It is of paramount importance that the brothers receive adequate punishment and are sent to a juvenile correctional facility. Otherwise, under present circumstances, one could safely assume they are set to become accomplished antisocial elements in the future.
