93pc people for stopping student politics at edu institutions: Poll

Ninety-three per cent people think student politics should be stopped at educational institutions, according to an online poll by Prothom Alo.

Five per cent of the respondents participating in the poll think it should not be right to stop student politics while two per cent of the respondents gave no opinion on the issue.

An online poll on ‘Do you think student politics should be stopped at educational institutions?’ was run on the Facebook page of Prothom Alo between 7:00 pm on 14 August and 5:00 pm on 20 August.

A total of 350,133 respondents took part in the poll with a single Facebook account being used to vote one time only. As many as 326,730 respondents chose ‘yes’ while 19,561 said ‘no’ and 3,842 responded had to ‘no comment’.

Following the student-people movement that toppled the Awami League government on 5 August, many students raised demands to stop current student politics at educational institutions. Amid such a situation, Prothom Alo ran the poll.

Leaders of various student organisations have said student politics based on party allegiance must stop, not the student politics per se. They also insisted that the student union-based politics must continue at the higher education institutions to establish the rights of students.

Several students demonstrated in front of the Raju Memorial Sculpture on the Dhaka University campus on Monday and Tuesday demanding the ban on student politics as well as the holding of elections for the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) immediately.

Dhaka University is considered to be the centre of student politics in the country.

Leaders of the student fronts affiliated with the ruling party took control of the halls during the past Awami League and BNP governments. Their student organisation leaders decided who would stay at the hall and who would not. The hall and university administrations had no role in it.

Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) controlled the male dormitories during the Awami League rule and Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) during the BNP government.

The control, however, was not so blatant in the female dormitories.

During the past AL government, it was mandatory for first-year students at Dhaka University to participate in the processions and rallies of the ruling party student front, Chhatra League, or else they faced torture.

Such an incident took place in February 2018 when BCL leaders confined Ehsan Rafique, a student of disaster science and management, to a room of a hall and tortured him severely. He also sustained severe injury in one of his corneas.

Not only that, leaders of the ruling party’s student fronts were also involved in various other crimes like tender manipulation, extortion and kidnappings in the Dhaka University area and other universities in the country.

The name of the Chhatra League came up in 38 incidents of extortions, muggings, assaults and attacks on rivals at Dhaka University in 2023 alone. Chhtra Dal was also seen involved in similar crimes during the BNP regime.

General students’ discontent against student politics based on party allegiance has come to the fore from time to time. They demonstrated at various halls of Dhaka University on the night of 16 July centring the quota reform movement, and they apparently took written commitment on ‘banning student politics at halls’ from the hall provosts.

At least 11 public universities, six medical colleges and two government colleges have already banned student politics in the wake of the students’ demand following the fall of the Awami League government.

Student politics was banned at the country’s leading engineering education institution, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), in the wake of the student movement in 2019.

Abrar Fahad, 21, a second-year student of electrical and electronic engineering department at BUET, was beaten to death by a group of BCL leaders and activists at the Sher-e-Bangla Hall on 6 October that year.

BUET students waged a massive movement bringing various allegations against the Chhatra League at that time. Later, the university administration issued an ‘urgent advertisement’ banning student politics on the campus in the wake of the student movement on 11 October 2019.

Central president of a faction of Chhatra Union Ragib Naeem told Prothom Alo that discussion can happen against extortion and terrorism in the name of student politics, but the demand to ban all kinds of student politics is an effort for depoliticisation. It is necessary to find out who is behind this, he added.

Healthy student politics is necessary at educational institutions to make students aware politically, Ragib insisted.

No political party can have any affiliated or associated body consisting of the students, the Representation of the People Order (RPO) said. But political parties adopted different strategies to maintain their clout on campuses. Awami League has declared Chhatra League as a fraternity body while BNP said in its party constitution that Chhatra Dal will be an associate body and run on its separate constitution.

In an interview with Prothom Alo on 10 August, Nahid Islam, one of the coordinators of Students Against Discrimination that led the student movement and adviser to the interim government, said students think there is no need for student politics based on party allegiance, terrorism and muscle power on campuses. Students will work to spread knowledge, as well as wage movements to realise their rights and raise voices for national interests. Student politics should be based on student unions on campus.

He further said no student gets enrolled at universities to maintain any party allegiance. From that perspective, this demand of the students is very important. A decision should come soon on the matter by discussion with teachers and other stakeholders of the universities. Teachers and students together will have to fix how the university will actually be operated.