Former coordinator of Students Against Discrimination and general secretary of July Shaheed Smriti Foundation Sarjis Alam is against mass arrest of banned Bangladesh Chhatra League’s post holders from Dhaka University unit and its residential halls.
He said many had to join BCL out of compulsion. Many of them were in the movement of Students Against Discrimination.
In a long post on his Facebook page, Sarjis said this on Monday night.
He also clarified that this statement is applicable to Dhaka University only. He has no detailed idea about other universities.
That is why he requested all not to use this statement in cases of other educational institutions.
Sarjis Alam, a student of the zoology department at Dhaka University, was involved with the BCL once. He was elected a member of Amar Ekushey Hall sangsad of Dhaka University in the DUCSU and Hall Sangsad election in March 2019.
The interim government banned the BCL on 23 October. Two cases have been filed in connection with the attack on general students on the DU campus on 15 July. Several BCL leaders of DU unit and hall units have been accused in the cases. Sarjis made the comment in this context.
Sarjis wrote, “I want to express dissent on one thing. This is only about Dhaka University. Students from the dormitories of Dhaka University joined the movement spontaneously before 1 July and from 1-15 July. The students of halls continued the movement until 15 (July). Those who have an idea about Dhaka University know it very well that one had to do the politics of Chhatra League to stay at the dormitories. They had to join their programmes, guest rooms and stay at gono rooms. That is why those who used to stay at halls had to do those things out of compulsion.”
In his status, Sarjis further said nearly 80 per cent of the post holders used to remain in committees for reasons like getting a seat in the dormitory, for the opportunity to stay at the hall until getting a job or to save oneself from being tagged or being a victim of an injustice. Many of the remaining 20 per cent of the students used to abuse power, he added.
Sarjis also wrote that those 80 per cent students played the most important role in the Dhaka University-centred first phase of the movement for 16-17 days.
According to him, as they joined the movement with banners from the hall, non-posted general students could come out with them. That is why the hall candidates could not stop them from joining the programme.
Sarjis Alam pointed out that had the post-holders of Chhatra League not come out of the hall together, the non-posted ones would not have dared to come out together.
He writes that those boys could show the guts and boldness. The movement from 1-15 July was possible as from the context of the hall, the truth is that these post-holding boys from the halls with a comparatively clean image joined the movement. That is why the movement could not be tagged as launched by any other party or as an anti-government one. “Now the question is whether I will ban these post-holder boys from the hall tagging them as BCL or not. The answer is, no, I won’t do that.”
Sarjis remarked that those who took to the streets alongside the Students Against Discrimination and staked their lives to show their position for justice have passed their test
“The truth is, if this movement did not succeed, these boys would have suffered the most, they would have been tagged as traitors,” he wrote in the Facebook post.
He further said, “All of you must be responsible for the system due to which they had to join the politics of BCL compulsorily and had to take posts because all of you were silent. No one stopped the injustice that happened to them day after day on the campus. If they took the post for safety and security, you too kept quiet to save your skin. Rather, whenever the opportunity arose, they boldly took to the streets. Even then you were a silent spectator.”
Sarjis also wrote there could be investigation and punishment if any of these 80 per cent boys were involved in any wrongdoing before and after. “But when it was necessary, I encouraged them to take to the streets and now they will face mass arrest as they are Chhatra League post holders; I never support this (thought process). It can’t be.”