The lives must be accounted for

We are passing through unimaginable, alarming and cruel times. Over the past few days we have witnessed how a resolvable problem has been blown out of proportion simply due to extreme intolerance, the arrogance of power, contempt for the people and an unaccountable system of government. There have been many struggles for democracy both before the country's independence and after. Time and again we have had to confront the domination of autocrats. Our struggle for democracy is not over. But never before have so many lives been lost in any movement. The movement this time had taken the form of a mass uprising. We have seen this rebellious face of the people before too. But never has there been so much bloodshed.

Before our very eyes, the steadily growing peaceful movement of the youth fell victim to brutal violence. From 1 July the teachers of all public universities across the country declared a work halt. The associations of all public universities, mostly known to be of the government camp,  were leading this movement. Their movement involved the issue of wages and insurance. Incidentally, on the very same day the quota reform movement entered a new phase.

Many of those involved in Chhatra League were also a part of this quota reform movement. After all, how many are guaranteed a secure present and future simply by virtue of joining Chhatra League? At the end of the day, most will have to go in search of jobs.

The country is witnessing growth, but there is no generation of employment. One has to lobby, pay fat sums of money to get a job. The job trade is daunting. There's BCS, but with limited entry due to the quotas. The anti-discrimination student movement was simply trying to change that. There were the teachers' demands on one hand and the students' movement on the other, but the government acted as if it had no time to give ear to such trivial matters. They were too engrossed in "development". Watching all of this unfold, on 6 July I wrote:

"So many universities of the country have come to a standstill because of the movements of the teachers and students, yet the government is impervious. Why? There may be two main reasons. One is that the government may not feel any sense of responsibility towards the country's education and those involved in education. That is why we see lower allocations in the educational sector compared to other countries, lowest teachers' wages, and even the misuse of whatever little allocation is made.

"School teachers sit on the streets for month after month, but the government does not bother to address their demands. In the meantime they come up with a profusion of projects and experiments from schools to universities, forcefully imposing decisions and  commercialising  these entire system.

"The second reason is that the government does not want teachers and students in the educational institutions, they want goons and spineless creatures. They have been successful in this effort. That is why the halls are rife with terror and the teachers that parrot the government's praise dominate the universities.

"But now even those teachers have taken up a movement, and many of those students are voicing anti-quota slogans. That is because their interests now are being directly affected. These are movements of collective interests. The government will not be able to snap its fingers and use its party lackeys to remove the problem. They will have to discuss the teachers' problem, they will have to shortly take a decision regarding quota reforms. Quota over 10 per cent is not justified. They must ensure that merit, not quota, is the benchmark of qualification."

Time has passed and the students have just been shown the High Court. And we all know what happened next. The students who have been demonstrating for a justified and long-pending demand, were subject to humiliating slur. They broke out in protest on the very same night, their processions growing longer. Then, following the instigation of a government minister, Chhatra League cracked down on them. When they could not effectively quell them, they called in hired goons. It was the same in almost all universities -- Chhatra League could not stand up against the agitating students and so fled, sometimes to return with busloads of hired hoodlums. Even when that wasn't working, the police entered the campus. The more force was used, the stronger the resistance grew, the more the participation.

Let me cite the events at Jahangirnagar University. From after 15 July, the students of Jahangirnagar University were attacked several times. First they were attacked by Chhatra League, next by their hired force of goons, and then the state forces swooped down on them. The vice chancellor and the rest of the administration closed their doors and their eyes and allowed all of these atrocities to occur. But the teachers under the banner of the teachers association did protest. The teachers were assaulted to in the attacks. At one point on television it was seen that the streets in around the campus were teeming with police and other forces of the state, no students or teachers in sight. The students were hiding behind trees and bushes while gunfire resounded all around. This terror has been unleashed to chase away those to whom the campus belongs.

The demonstrations and agitation was initially at the public universities only, but as the injustice and humiliation simply grew, private universities and colleges joined in. The government shut down all educational institutions. Before announcing it would adopt a hardline, the government had already gone to the extreme. They continued to step up their assaults. The students moved on from blockades to complete shutdown.

When unarmed Abu Sayeed in Rangpur was shot in the chest at point blank range, many of us thought this was the excesses of an individual member of the police. But it took us no time to realise that these were the directives that had been issued. And this took place all around, people fell and died like flies. It was not just the students in the movement, but little children, factory workers, rickshawpullers, young teens, an old woman at the gate of her house -- no one was spared from this indiscriminate gunfire. People who have lost their arms, their legs, their eyes, are piling up in hospitals. The attack came not just from the ground, but from the air above too.

The window of my small study is quite big. This is a big refuge to me. In between my studies, I look up at the sky, the colours of the sky, changing with the seasons, changing at different times of the day. The expansive sky makes the world vast, makes it precious. In the greenery afar I see the birds at play, pigeons, shaliks, sparrows, bulbuls, crows and even the distant hawks. Their chirping and chirruping brings life to the surroundings. We survive and work despite the toxic air and the clamour of Dhaka city. And yet through this window I had to see the circling helicopter releasing deafening sound grenades, one after the other. The people were screaming in terror. It was unimaginable, but that is what occurred. I saw no birds that day.

Force beyond imagination. The state attacked the youth. Massive damage was done to property. Many media outlets highlight news of the destruction and damage to vehicles and installations, tucking away the deaths of the youth, the children. Arrests are being made en masse. Over 200 people have died in just these couple of days and the count in mounting. How, at whose orders, were these bullets, bought with the people's money, used to kill the people, to injure thousands? For whom has the country's resources, economy, lives and livelihood been damaged and destroyed? All this must be accounted for.

Our history is not one of merely being attacked. Our history is also one of taking account. Our history is one of resistance.

* Anu Muhammad is a teacher and editor of the quarterly journal Sarbajankatha

* This column appeared in the print an online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English edition by Ayesha Kabir