Declaring people non grata
A very insidious precedent has been set by the situation evolving out of the denial by Chhatra Sangram Parishad to take Piash Karim's body to the Shaheed Minar. The reason was that the views of the late professor on certain national issues were not in accord with that of the students' body. The matter did not stop there. Nine eminent persons including several journalists and educationists have been declared persona non grata in the Shaheed Minar by the said group on the same grounds. And this is what begs the question.
Are we to understand that a section of the society has the sole prerogative of determining the loyalty and patriotism of others, particularly those that hold dissenting views? Is patriotism the exclusive monopoly of a particular group who also arrogate to it the task of determining who should be allowed access to our iconic sites and who not? The Shaheed Minar belongs to the people and no one group can claim exclusivity of it. And no one can prevent access of a person to any place in the country and that too because he or she holds views contrary to theirs. Will we be remiss in suggesting that by keeping mum on the matter the government has demonstrated its acquiescence to the actions and statements of the students group?
We are constrained to say that the Dhaka University authority's role has been anti-democratic for allowing the pictures of so called persona non grata to be displayed at the Shaheed Minar as if they were on the wanted list. We condemn this action and call upon both the DU authority and the government to take action against the body that has arrogated to itself the right to “select” who can and who cannot go to the Shaheed Minar.
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