At a time when the families of the intermediate students, who killed themselves over poor results in the examination, are yet to come to terms with reality, Cinematography Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav’s comment on the unfortunate incidents has evoked outrage, especially from the families of the students who called it insensitive.
A Udaya, brother of an intermediate first-year student who committed suicide after she failed in Telugu, said that it was inconsiderate of the minister to say student suicides happen every year and that Anamika should have waited for the recounting or appeared for the supplementary examinations. “I know that my sister is not going to come back. But, when he came to offer a condolence to our family, he should not have said such things. Instead of saying anything about the action taken against those that pushed my sister and others to end their lives, all he did was blame the poor students for it,” said the degree student.
Five days after Anamika committed suicide, her family was told that she was among the selected to go to Delhi through NCC. “She wanted to become an Army officer,” said Udaya with tears rolling down hiseyes. “ She was a strong girl. She was never stressed or worried about her results. Last year when a girl in the neighbourhood committed suicide, Anamika had said that such people should also think about their families before taking such extreme steps,” Udaya recalled.
Daily wager Srinivas Rao remembered how his 17-year-old son D Nagendra came up to him and said that he had not passed part B of mathematics, but affirmed that he would prepare and pass for the paper in the supplementary exam. “That night he hung himself,” said Srinivas Rao. Nagendra was a bright student who secured 9.2 GPA in class 10.
“I have lost one son and now I am worried about the other, because of all the trauma he is undergoing. We want nothing except that the responsible ones — the intermediate officials and Golabarena Technologies — should be punished,” he said.
Srinivas Rao is not the first one or the last one. A 20-year-old Viresh too is going through a similar mental breakdown. His sister, Jyothi, was one among the 21 students who committed suicide after the goofed up results were published by the Board of Intermediate Education (BIE). “Among the three brothers in their generation, only my father had two children and Jyothi, being the youngest, was the apple of everyone’s eye. We haven’t recovered from the shock. We want nothing from anyone. We just want the guilty to be punished,” said Viresh.
Meanwhile, while meeting the families of those who committed suicide and offering a condolence, BJP State president K Laxman offered financial support to Nagendra’s family and also assured to fund his brother’s education. His father Srinivas said, “All our dreams have been crushed after his death of our son and that too because of others’ mistakes,” said Srinivas Rao.
