Centralisation of power a bad omen for democracy: Akbar Ali Khan

Former adviser to the caretaker government Akbar Ali Khan has said the centralisation of power is a bad omen for democracy and it cannot be a democracy unless people have a control over the government.

Akbar Ali Khan made this remark at a commemorative address organised on Saturday to mark the 2nd death anniversary of Dhaka University former vice chancellor Emajuddin Ahmed.

"The country where people can keep the government under control, is democracy. The country where the people have no control, whether the election place or not, that cannot be called democracy," he added.

The former adviser to the caretaker government thinks the quality of education was much better during the colonial period despite various crises. Emajuddin Ahmad spent his student life under the colonial education system. That education system did not merely have weakness, but had several strong sides. At the time, the curricula was old, there was a crisis of textbooks and teachers, but the quality of education was very high.

Akbar Ali Khan said, "Today we have no dearth of infrastructure, universities, books, libraries and teachers. It is heard that there so many teachers in some departments of Dhaka University that there no available courses and teachers consider them to be lucky by sharing a course and teaching throughout a year. However, when Emajuddin was a student, teachers took three to four classes a day, but quality of studies did not fall.

Akbar Ali Khan said currently elections do not take place regularly for universities, college and hall unions to nurture love for democracy and to questions about democracy among the students.

He said Emajuddin Ahmad believed in liberal democracy and he had good relations with all. He did politics of understanding, not conflict.

Dhaka University professor Dil Rowshan Jinnat Ara Naznin delivered the welcome speech. She spoke of Emajuddin Ahmad's personal life and work.

Rowshan Jinnat said Emajuddin had a deep interest in studies. He wrote over 60 books and published over 100 research articles. Under his supervision, MPhil and PhD degrees were introduced at the political science department at Dhaka University.

Emajuddin Research Centre organised the event moderated by poet Abdul Hye Sikder.