Millennium celebration incident shatters BCL image

Assault on a young woman on the night of millennium celebration on Dhaka University campus embarrassed the Chhatra League leadership.

Leaders of the ruling party's student front Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) now feels ashamed and having hard time in regaining the lost image of the organisation that has an everlasting impact.

To hide the shameful incident and some of their comrades alleged involvement, many BCL leaders are trying to avoid the campus nowadays.

Even they are not meeting journalists on the campus in their desperate bid to refrain from making any comment on the issue.

A good number of BCL central and DU unit leaders including president Bahadur Bepari are yet to come to the campus. "He (Bepari) is now staying at his village home only to escape the harsh experience of the incident," claimed one central leader who preferred anonymity.

They admit, in confidence, the involvement of some of their activists in assaulting the young woman, Shaon Akhter Badhan, but officially they don't open their mouths on ground of image problem.

"BCL leaders should have taken organisational steps against these responsible. But their indifference over the issue rather further tarnished the BCL reputation," another BCL worker commented. Many others in the organisation feel the same way.

The Chhatra League is now facing criticism from within, apart from widespread condemnation from different quarters, for alleged involvement in the incident.

Most BCL leaders who are now available on the campus, think that the incident has shattered the "image" of the country's leading student organisation. They also said that the incident would remain as a black spot in the history of the BCL.