ROHTAK: With every window smashed and covered in black soot, Scholars Rosary school looks like one of those ravaged buildings that typify any warscarred city’s landscape. The charred school bus on the lawn adds to the poignancy. But, that’s just the teaser trailer.

Inside, the school resembles a madman’s playground. Every computer has been physically destroyed. In the music room, the harmonium and the keyboard have morphed into congealed carbon. Most of the books in the library have been reduced to a heap of ash; only a few defiantly retaining their shapes.

Ironically, the marauders took pains to carry a statue of goddess Saraswati out of the building even as they went about wrecking the centre of learning. Walking out of the compound, one saw graffiti on an uprooted security cabin: Jat thaara baap (Jat is your dad.)

The attack on the school, about five km from Rohtak on Sonipat Road, alma mater to over 2,500 people, probably marks a new low in the politics of violent agitation in India; schools are generally spared by protesters.

But, during this Jat stir for reservation, several schools on the outskirts of Rohtak — on Delhi Road, Sonipat Road and Gohana Road — were plundered with a fury that has baffled all. TOI visited two such schools — Indus Public School being the other — and also spoke to the principals and directors of other schools destroyed by vandals. John Wesley Convent and SD Public School were among those that faced their wrath.

“The computer lab, the office and buses were all damaged,” said Rakesh Khurana, director, SD Public School. Even MR DAV Institute, a school for the mentally-challenged, was not spared. At least three other schools reported damages and losses.

“It’s not just the money lost. The students, especially young children, who saw hordes of men with metal rods running riot in the town, are still afraid,” said Ravi Gugnani, director, Scholars Rosary.

Rohtak-based social scientist Kanwar Chauhan said the entire episode saw a new kind of uncontrolled mob with absolutely no morals. “Such a thing has happened in Haryana for the first time. They attacked medical institutions too. Even the Patel protests were different,” said Chauhan, who teaches sociology at Maharshi Dayanand University.

Two students, who will be taking their Class XII board examinations next week, recalled their ordeal. “People had gathered outside our homes with all sorts of iron weapons. We even removed our nameplates. We couldn’t study for four days. But more than that, our momentum was broken,” said Ayush Wadhwa. Nakul Chawla was “stunned” to see the photographs of his school. “I just couldn’t recognise it,” he added.

Most such schools are owned by non-Jat Punjabis. Indus Public School of Captain Abhimanyu, the finance minister in the Khattar government, is an exception. The Jat politician’s home was also attacked. At Indus, the marauders burnt school buses and vans, the air-conditioned auditorium, the library, the conference room, and the principal’s chamber, where molten trophies won by former students are now stuck in the glass cabinet.

In the account room, the mob broke open iron almirahs, probably looking for cash. They stole computers, LED lamps. Perversely, they even burnt and destroyed the science project models.

“The mob was 50-strong initially, but swelled to 500 later. How can anybody burn down an educational institution?” asked principal Sushma Jha. But the incident hasn’t crushed her spirit. “I will reopen the school on Monday,” she said.

Ravinder Killoi, the security guard at Scholars Rosary, said he begged the rioters with folded hands not to set the school on fire. “They said, ‘humne tod-fod karni hey. Jaan bachani hai to side ho jaana’. I couldn’t understand this: when you are fighting a government, why burn down a school?”



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