Everyone Wants a Scapegoat, Students’ Demands Are Valid: Vikas Divyakirti Of Drishti IAS
On Saturday evening, nearly 35 people, including students and staff members, were trapped in the basement of Rau’s IAS Study Circle in New Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar as rainwater flooded the area. While most managed to escape, three students—Tania Soni (25), Navin Delvin (28), and Shreya Yadav (25)—tragically lost their lives.
This incident has sparked a heated debate in Parliament regarding the state of education in India, and also caused a larger blame game among the political parties in national capital. Meanwhile, after facing the brunt from the students protests after the deaths, Delhi’s local governance body MCD did a crackdown on unlicensed businesses that included educator and YouTuber Vikas Divyakirti’s Drishti IAS.
Breaking his silence, Drishti IAS founder Vikas Divyakirti stated that he believes he is being targeted because, in such situations, authorities often seek a scapegoat to deflect blame. He explained that the administration and society feel safer by placing the blame on one individual. Divyakirti emphasised that the emotional turmoil students are experiencing is justified, and their anger stems from feeling unsupported by him.
“I am getting targetted because in such cases, everyone wants a scapegoat. It makes things easier for the administration, they think they are safe, let that one person suffer, and even the society feels that they have got the accused…” he told news agency ANI.
Divyakirti expressed deep sorrow over the incident, mentioning how the tragic deaths of the three students have haunted him. He described the painful image of the students’ final moments, trapped as the basement filled with water. He affirmed the validity of the protesting students’ demands, having personally met with several of them to understand their concerns better.
Divyakirti also mentioned a meeting with Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor, which included students, institute owners, and top officials from the Delhi government, DDA, MCD, fire department, and Chief Secretary. He reiterated that all the points raised by the protesting students are valid and need to be addressed urgently.
Vikas Divyakirti also stressed that while authorities and society may seek a scapegoat, the real focus should be on addressing the students’ valid concerns and improving safety standards to prevent such tragedies in the future.
“The students are going through an emotional turmoil, the reason for their anger is why did I not stand with them…The sealing action took place on more than 50 institutes, one of them is ours…3 children died, it was a painful death, for the last 3 days whenever we talk at home or I go to sleep, an image comes to my mind that what those children must have gone through when the water was filled inside…All the things said by the students who are protesting right now are valid,” he added in his interaction with ANI.
