BCL men at it again

A clash between two factions of the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) at Comilla Medical College forced the university to close down for an indefinite period of time. The incident comes days after a similar clash at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology on December 21 that prompted the university authority to close it down for 15 days, only to reverse its decision a day later following student protests.

Then there was the case of BCL men stopping the recruitment test at Rajshahi University on December 23, demanding jobs for party men and forcing around 3,308 job seekers travelling from all parts of the country to leave the university premises. What these incidents show is that some BCL men are clearly out of control and have turned into a menace for ordinary people.

While university closures on account of clashes between ruling party men is not new at this point, the suffering caused to ordinary people still seem not to matter enough for the ruling party to take any meaningful action against errant party members and produce any significant changes. But now, given the regularity with which these incidents are happening, can the ruling party still argue that these are exceptional cases and not what has become the norm? That they are carried out by a handful of party miscreants and not indicative of a deeper problem within the student wing of the party itself?

These are questions that the ruling party must ask itself. In the meantime, the authorities must take stern action against those responsible for such hooliganism and remove the prevailing air of impunity BCL men seem to be enjoying.