‘Student politics can’t be banned by forming law’
An 18-year-old can not be denied the right to their freedom of speech, said agriculture minister and veteran politician Dr Abdur Razzaque yesterday.
Reflecting on the brutal murder of Buet student Abrar Fahad and the subsequent ban on student politics at the country’s premier engineering university, he said, “University students can express their political opinion as a constitutional right.”
The minister was addressing a workshop at Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute in Gazipur.
“Therefore, you cannot ban student politics by law,” he said. “Practicing democratic spirit is a fundamental political right.”
Party-based student politics is a common practice in many countries of the world including neighbouring India, where elections to students’ union are held on the basis of political affiliations, he said.
Student politics has been a long tradition in this country as well, he said, but it has to be transparent, ethical, and in democratic spirit.
Abrar murder is a heart-wrenching tragedy and is utterly unacceptable, said the minister. “It is unthinkable that the country’s brightest students may indulge in such brutal act of beating a co-student to death.”
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