Students and politics
I am writing today with a heavy heart about a concern equally shared by many of the ex-DU students, after seeing so much of tension, violence and agitation being spread out across the colleges and universities of my beloved country.
More precisely, the environment on Dhaka University campus does not seem to be very much open and accommodating as it is supposed to be for many dissenting voices. Living in the 21st century globalised world, it is indeed very sad to watch that some of the so called student leaders of the ruling party will decide the fate of the thousands of students.
It breaks my heart, being a son of a freedom fighter, to see the kind of obliteration of my fellow countrymen to others only because they do not like them or believe in something different. Forcing students, who have rightful domicile, to leave the residential halls, barring them to attend lessons or beating some of them inhumanly while claiming to be part of the progressive block and ideology is nothing but self-denial and life of oblivion.
Bangladesh is a country where its constitution had guaranteed its citizens full democratic right of freedom of expression, association, speech, equality, fairness and justice, irrespective of their belief, sex, and race. Nonetheless, in practice, not only the University Administration had failed to facilitate those rights guaranteed by the constitution but also the elected government has failed to do anything.
It has always been the criteria to judge good governance on the basis of dealing with the minority view or opposition or the individuals not agreed with their opinion.
Where are those ideals that we were taught by our teachers? Why has our university administration failed so miserably to uphold those century old principles?
Let me conclude with the example of British Nationalist Party and National Front of France led by Jean-Marie Le Pen which preach the extreme of the ideas based on white supremacy in their respective countries; however, they were/are not banned even after repeated calls to do so. That is democracy.
I would hope and expect that under your leadership every student would be provided equal status, irrespective of their alleged political involvement with any ideology or blocks. In the absence of such identical treatment not only education would be hampered but also the image of the ' Oxford of the East', would be tarnished further.
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