An Ordinary Citizen

JU BCL factions trade gunfire

The latest event in the continuous violence in the campuses is the closure of Barisal Medical College for kidnapping of a student due to intra-party conflicts of BCL. The college was closed sine die and the political activities of BCL has been suspended for 3 months. Few weeks back  a student of Dhaka Medical College was killed by his fellows of the same student front. 

Hasina orders the Law and Order authorities to take stern action against the disturbing students who are responsible for violence in the campuses.

Hasina also declined earlier to meet with the feuding student leaders of Dhaka University and withdrawn her name form the patrons of the student organisation.

We appreciate the moves so far taken by the Prme Minister but these moves didn’t prove enough to quell the tension in the academic institutions.

It is time to rethink about the student politics in Bangladesh. The government and university authorities fail miserably to deliver the responsibility of maintaining the peaceful academic atmosphere in the campuses and to continue the academic exercises unhindered.

Banning student politics is not the answer. A debate is needed to be created among the citizens how to contain violence in the campus and a dialogue is needed to develop among different political groups for coming to a consensus regarding the form of student politics in the country and a thorough discussion of the issue is needed to be made in the parliament to define the form of student politics in Bangladesh.

Current student unrest not only disturbing the academic environment of the institutions and depriving our future generation to nourish their  potential, it is also jeopardising the possibility of Bangladesh to develop into a mid-income country by 2021. The environment of research is also affected in the universities by the nasty student politics.

We must rethink about the objective of student politics of our country. There is no burden on the student of liberatating  the country  and there is no burden on the students to establish democracy in our country. Now the burdent on the students is to develop themselves as the worthy citizens and leaders for the  future of Bangladesh.

The character that the present student politics takes up not only is worrying for the present but it is more worrying for the future thinking that what type of leadership is waiting for us in the future.

The present political leadership of both government and opposition  is also at stake to develop future leadership for the country who will be decent, honest, committed to democracy and peoples’ welfare . But what are we seeing? The picture is in absolute contradiction to our expectation.

To comeout of this quagmire, the student politics must be dissociated from the mainstream politics, must be dissociated from  business interests, mainly confined to the benefits of the students and only regular students would be allowed to do politics in the campus.
A line is needed to be drawn between the campus politics and politics outside the campus.

Student politics is also associated with the teachers politics. To clean the student politics teachers politics is also need to be reoriented. The teachers should dissociated themselves  from mainstream politics in the campus and should not use the students to keep their influence in the campus intact.

For all this, a consensus is important  among the academicians, political groups, citizens, guardians and students.

Time is running out.

An ordinary citizen

Opinion:
Overcoming student agitation-ABSM Jahur