Clash amongst DU teachers

The recent incident of assault that took place at a meeting of a group of teachers at Dhaka University does not befit their profession. As this daily has reported, two factions of pro-Awami League teachers of Dhaka University were involved in a row at a meeting of the Blue Panel teachers at TSC on November 2. At one point, one of the feuding teachers allegedly fell upon another and left him with minor injuries. Regrettably, the predictable mutual blaming does very little to salvage the sullied image of the teachers' community.

While Dhaka University has created some of the brightest people of this country and teachers of this institution have always led the nation in all its glorious democratic movements in the past, the present degradation of its political culture is shocking. Some teachers, unfortunately, have become actively involved in party politics for petty interests: promotions, positions in various university organisations, financial benefits, etc. The latest incident is the worst example of teachers' involvement in party politics.

By assaulting each other, what example have these teachers set for the students? When some teachers of the best public university of the country engage in political feuds, the overall educational environment of the university is hampered. We would like to believe that what we have witnessed in the last several days is not the actual representation of the larger teachers' fraternity of DU. It's our hope that political differences would not manifest in violence in our highest seat of learning and vitiate its atmosphere.