Students Brandishing Weapons Expose Rot In Chennai's Old Colleges

Footage of three college students brandishing assault weapons on trains has led to their arrest by the railway police.

The students were from Chennai's Presidency College.

In a video that has since went viral on social media, these students were seen performing stunts using long knives while travelling on the footboard of a suburban train.  

The Railway Police is on the lookout for more students who were part of the gang.

A senior railway official said that they were conducting awareness programmes in colleges to discourage travelling on footboards in suburban trains.

This is not the first incident of college students in Chennai brandishing dangerous weapons. There have been numerous occasions in the last few years. In an earlier piece, Swarajya has covered this phenomenon in much detail.

In 2019, two groups of students from the renowned Pachaiyyapa’s College were seen chasing and attacking each other with machetes.

In 2018, a group of students with knives from the Presidency and Pachaiyappa’s College ran amok at a suburban train station. One student was critically injured.

According to authorities, on some bus routes, the students try to make fun of each other, sing songs running down one another and finally end up fighting, sometime leading to violence and damage to properties, including buses.

Most of these students involved in the incidents are from troubled spots and hail from families that struggle to make ends meet. Involvement of local politicians is also a reason for these violent incidents as students get paid for indulging in clashes. 

Other observers blame it on the deteriorating quality of students coming to the regular colleges.

They say that the academically brilliant students are preferring to go for professional courses while those coming to the regular colleges are the ones who want a degree for namesake.

Also Read: Reality Check: Why Chennai Colleges Are Becoming Dens For Rowdies