As the controversy simmered and then boiled over, the absence of one party was noted and commented upon. The students' unions were conspicuous by their hands-off approach.

If the three active unions -- the National Students' Union of India, the Akhil Bharatita Vidyarthi Parishad and the All-India Democratic Students' Organisation -- were thought to be moribund, this incident has all but clinched the students' conviction that they can fight their battles without the unions' intervention.

Students' union general secretary Prakash Verma, however, claimed, ``Even we don't want to interfere (in all issues). We wait and watch, and step in only when there's a hue-and-cry about something. When the union has to step in, we do.''

When asked what took them five days to take up the alleged ragging case, Verma said there was nothing concrete to substantiate the initial charges. ``Given a chance, I'd definitely like to solve such differences by making the affected parties talk it out'', he added.

All India Democratic Students' Organisation spokesman Bharti Parmar, on his part, said, ``Yes, we do like to look into student issues, but we came to know of this particular incident late, as we were out of station."

"We'll decide our stand after we hold a meeting, within a few days,'' he said.

Admitted ABVP general secretary Mayur Patel, ``Yes, the union is becoming weak but it does raise its voice when necessary.'' As far as the ragging issue was concerned, he said there was no need to interfere as the students themselves had determined the charges were not substantiated.

``But yes ,when there is a genuine problem -- like lack of hostel accommodation -- we do stand by the students'', claimed Patel.

That the students themselves don't consider the arguments to hold much water was evident from the statement of one: ``If we can solve everything ourselves, why go to the students' union? They have nothing much to do anyway apart from going on rampages and submitting memoranda.''

A student of the Faculty of Commerce questioned, ``Have they solved any problem of ours that we should depend on them?''