Student politics and criminality

Campus often turns volatile due to violent student politics

According to a report published in The Daily Star, around one hundred leaders and activists of the ruling BNP's student wing Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) at different colleges in the city are involved in mugging and collecting toll from the shops and business firms adjacent to their colleges. A good numbers of JCD leaders and activists of Dhaka College unit are engaged in mugging and toll collection in New Market, Elephant Road, and Science Laboratory areas. The leaders and activists of the JCD unit of Titumir College are engaged in extortion in the Mahakhali areas. A group of JCD leaders and activists of Tejgaon College, allegedly sheltered by a ward commissioner of Dhaka City Corporation, collect toll from the traders of Farmgate. Mirpur Bagla College unit of JCD leaders and activists are engaged in mugging, collecting tolls, and other criminal activities in Mirpur-1 area. The JCD leaders and activists of Kabi Nazrul College are involved in extortion, snatching, and also drug peddling. A former JCD leader of Jagannath University leads a group of activists who are engaged in toll collection from the shops and business houses at Islampur, Sadarghat, Banglabazar, and Patuatuli. It is learnt that the leaders of the JCD city unit get a share of the money.

Two JCD cadres, one allegedly a close ally to dreaded criminal Emon, died in Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) crossfire in Savar on June 23. Khan Ahamed Wasib, former General Secretary of Mohammadpur Thana unit of JCD and Rajib Hossain Farrok a member of the same unit were held by Rab from the Pallabi areas. The Rab team recovered nine fire-arms including an AK-47 rifle from their possession. One Tanjil, a JCD leader of Dhaka University, was also held last year while committing robbery in a business house in Motijheel commercial area. The president of JCD unit of Kabi Nazrul College was nabbed several times by police and Rab for his involvement in criminal activities, and still he continues his misdeeds.

It is also learnt that the intelligence departments have submitted reports to their higher authorities against the JCD leaders and activists who are engaged in various criminal activities like mugging, toll collection, and abduction for money. But the central leaders of the ruling BNP including its General Secretary have denied allegations against the leaders and activists of their student wing JCD, and said that these young men have been expelled and are no longer associated with JCD. It may be mentioned here that the leaders and activists of the Awami League's student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) used to commit similar crimes when Awami League was in power. So it can be said that the criminality of this kind has become a part of student politics in these days.

What took place recently at Dhaka University in the wake of the death of a third year student of the psychology department, who was crushed to death by a bus at Shahbagh intersection, is truly cause for concern. The leaders and activists of JCD seized control of the Dhaka University campus, preventing the activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) from returning to the campus. The JCD leaders, on motor cycles and in bands of ferocious groups, openly threatened that they would not allow the activists of BCL to return to the campus. The police and JCD activists together were seen to keep the followers of BCL off the campus. The general students and many of the teachers were forced to run for their lives. The university administration failed to bring back the academic discipline and dignity to the campus due the violence created by the JCD activists.

JCD also created violence of an unprecedented kind in Rajshahi University recently, following the naming of a new panel for appointment of the Vice Chancellor. The JCD leaders and activists ransacked as many as fifty five rooms belonging to the teachers of the various departments of the university. They also injured a good number of general students, as well as three teachers. The JCD leaders and activists went on such a rampage on the information that their preferred candidate had been ignored in the process for selection of a new Vice Chancellor.

An incident of such violence also occurred in the Shahjalal Science and Technology University in Sylhet. The collusive role by the JCD activists and police wreaked havoc in the campus injuring general students and also some of the teachers. The students and the teachers were only demanding justice by staging a sit-in demonstration in front of the Vice Chancellor's office against a rape incident committed by the JCD elements. The JCD activists led by their leaders tried to scare them off by firing a few rounds of blank shots in front of the police force deployed there. The ordeal of the students and teachers did not end there. They chased them afterwards and beat them up. The police turned a blind eye when the JCD activists fired blank shots and attacked the students and teachers. The cohabitation between the police and the JCD activists to gag the voice of protest against the crimes committed by the JCD elements also exists in other universities.

The student politics which is presently in its most belligerent form, is no doubt responsible to a great extent for paralysing the public universities. In fact, higher education in the public universities of the country is now held hostage to politics. Dhaka University, once known as the Oxford of the East, used to produce outstanding scholars, scientists, and writers. But it has lost its glory of the past. Now it is known as a campus of clashes, violence, and bomb blasts. The students, who have entered this university with genuine intention for higher education are also prevented from doing so, as they are forced to live in an atmosphere totally hostile to such pursuits. Not Dhaka University alone, such a situation is also common in almost all the public universities in the country.

Student politics in this country has a historical and glorious heritage. During the movement against British rule, the students took active part in different movements. The students of this country were the main architects of the language movement of 1952. The students were not then involved in party-based politics. The student politics of these days is not set on the basis of ideals, but based on arms. Many of the student leaders are non-students. They have sold their souls to the devil and have had recourse to student politics as a short-cut to riches. Most of the student leaders now possess cars, buses, flats, and shops in the capital city. These student leaders and activists are involved in various heinous crimes as they have mastered the art of criminality instead of any academic subjects.

The participation of students in party-based politics, and their involvement in various crimes has prompted many conscious citizens to ask for a complete ban on student politics in order to bring back discipline and academic atmosphere in all the educational institutions including the public universities. The general students of the public universities are also in favour of a permanent ban on student politics. The most silent decay in our national life has occurred in the sector of higher education, and is due to student politics. Frequent strikes, violence, and other impediments are taking a heavy toll on the general students of the public universities.

The political parties can never rid the public universities of ugly politics and their activists of criminality if their student wings are allowed to continue. The arrest of a few student activists and claim that they have been expelled from the student wing of their party is not a solution to such a grave problem. It is really painful to see how the students at the highest centres of learning are suffering due to dirty student politics. It is learnt that the government is thinking of banning student politics affiliated with political parties. The sooner the better.

ANM Nurul Haque is Assistant General Manager, Sonali Bank.