Chhatra Federation hangs image of Ghulam Azam being beaten, in protest of Jinnah photos at DUCSU museum

In protest against the display of Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s photographs at the museum of the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU), leaders and activists of the Dhaka University unit of the Bangladesh Chhatra Federation have hung a photograph showing Ghulam Azam being beaten with shoes at the museum.

A group of students led by Arko Barua, organising secretary of the Chhatra Federation’s university unit, put up the photograph at around 3:00 pm on Monday.

At the museum, it was seen that a photograph showing Ghulam Azam being beaten with shoes at Baitul Mukarram in 1981 had been placed at the spot where Jinnah’s photograph had been displayed.

Arko Barua, organising secretary of the Bangladesh Chhatra Federation’s Dhaka University unit, said, “DUCSU is not anyone’s personal property. No one will accept a one-sided presentation of history. And because of what people like Ghulam Azam did in 1971, people beat him with shoes in the 1980s. We have preserved the history of the people of this country.”

He further said, “Yesterday, Juma (DUCSU’s Liberation War and Democratic Movement affairs secretary) said that they had put up Jinnah’s photograph because they wanted to. In exactly the same way, we wanted to put up a photograph of Ghulam Azam, so we did.”

DUCSU reopened the museum on Sunday following renovation work. It did not include a standalone or prominent photograph of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the leader of Bangladesh’s independence struggle. Instead, three new photographs of Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, were added.

One of them shows Jinnah speaking at an event at the then Racecourse Maidan, now Suhrawardy Udyan, Dhaka, on 21 March 1948, where he declared, “Only Urdu will be the state language of Pakistan.”

Another is a group photograph from the All-India Muslim League’s annual conference held in Lahore in March 1940, in which Jinnah appears. The third is a newspaper clipping from Pakistan’s Dawn carrying a photograph of Jinnah in a report on the 1970 election.

The display of Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s photographs at the DUCSU museum has sparked discussion and criticism on social media.

Shahriar Mustaq, a resident student of Muktijoddha Ziaur Rahman Hall, wrote on Facebook, “How much longer will it take for this DUCSU to develop love for the Bangla language and Bangladesh? The photograph of someone who opposed Bangla as a state language has been given a place in the DUCSU museum!”

Imdadul Haque, a student of Salimullah Muslim Hall, wrote, “Once, DUCSU fought for an independent Bangladesh; now it is fighting to protect anti-national forces!”

The Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) has also protested against the display of a controversial 1948 photograph of Muhammad Ali Jinnah at the DUCSU museum. The organisation issued a statement on Monday, 14 September, expressing its opposition.

It alleged that Jinnah’s photograph had been displayed at the museum in a manner that conflicts with the history of the Language Movement and the struggle for independence.

The organisation demanded that the photograph be removed and that DUCSU stop being used as a platform for promoting the ideology of any particular political group.

On the same day, the Bangladesh Chhatra Union protested against the addition of Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s photograph and the removal of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s photograph from the DUCSU museum.

In a statement, the organisation said removing Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s photograph, as a leader of the independence struggle, from the museum amounted to distorting history.

It warned that students would take appropriate action unless Jinnah’s photograph was removed and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s photograph was restored promptly.