VASCO
A delegation of Congress leaders on Monday met the police inspector of Verna Police Station to discuss the recent death of a student at BITS Pilani Goa campus, the fourth death of a student at the institution in nine months.
The delegation comprised Goa Pradesh Youth Congress Working President Mahesh Nadar, Goa Congress OBC Chairman Nitin Chopdekar, Jawahar Bal Manch Chairperson Pelagia Raposa, Goa Congress Minority Department Chairman Niazi Shaikh, and Cortalim Congress Block President Peter D’Souza.
In a press release issued later, the Congress described the repeated student deaths as a “signal of a broken system” and held the institution responsible for failing to provide adequate mental health support. The party said that three of the deaths were linked to “crushing academic pressure” in dual-degree programmes, while the fourth only highlighted the severity of the crisis.
The Congress questioned the institute’s announced measures — including flexible exams, wellness courses, and curriculum changes — calling them “mere words on paper” unless implemented without delay. “These were preventable deaths. Accountability is not optional,” the statement said.
Pointing out that between 2019 and 2023, as many as 98 students died by suicide in elite Indian institutions, the Congress described campuses as “pressure cookers producing fear instead of curiosity, and silence instead of support.”
The party posed several questions to the BITS Pilani management, asking why counselling services remained understaffed despite repeated warnings, when exam flexibility and curriculum reforms would be enforced, who would ensure timely implementation, and who would be held accountable in cases of negligence regarding student welfare.
It also sought to know how the stigma around mental health would be dismantled and what safeguards would be introduced to reduce pressure in dual-degree programmes.
The Congress also directed questions to the Government of India, seeking clarity on whether minimum mental-health infrastructure would be mandated across elite institutions, what steps were being taken to curb access to drugs and alcohol on campuses, and how accountability would be fixed for repeated student suicides.
“These four lives deserved far better. The only acceptable tribute is systemic reform — not condolence speeches. The next death, if it comes, will be on the conscience of every authority that failed to act,” the Congress said in its statement.
