Aava cracks whip on ragging

At a time when ragging in universities seem to have gone out of control, the controversial ‘Aava Group’ members are trying to step in to control the menace.

This week posters claiming to be from the group have appeared on the walls of the Jaffna University, warning senior students to immediately stop ragging freshers.

The posters had been pasted on Tuesday night outside a building of the University’s Arts Faculty. They claimed to be from the “Anti-Ragging Committee (ARC) of Aava Group.” The posters had noted that there were disturbing reports of university freshers being subjected to severe verbal and physical harassment due to ragging and that there were also reports that students were being subjected to ragging based on their caste.

The posters said ragging activities must immediately cease and warned that any students found to be engaging in ragging freshers in defiance of these warnings would suffer severe consequences. “Ragging is a crime,” the posters stressed in English.

On Wednesday morning, student unions at both the Jaffna and South Eastern Universities issued statements, insisting that ragging did not take place inside the universities, but also assuring that steps would be taken to prevent any such incidents. The Jaffna University students’ union had also taken steps to paste posters at the Arts Faculty building reiterating this assurance.

The poster campaign by the Aava Group and the students’ union is reminiscent of those campaigns carried out by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) in the late 1980s.