The student wing of ruling Awami League, Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) observed its 74th founding anniversary on 4 January. The day was celebrated centrally in front of the Aparajeyo Bangla in University of Dhaka. A number of leaders and activists including the former president and existing general secretary of the student body were present at the ceremony.
Both the current and former leaders encouraged the activists to remain well-organised and uphold their integrity. The leaders’ call went in vain as the workers and activists clashed in a tussle to sit in the front row, leaving many injured including the current BCL general secretary Lekhak Bhattacharjee.
Chhatra League had a major role in several democratic and political movements in the past. With few exceptions, we now only see BCL leaders and activists appearing in media reports due to their involvement in criminal or other negative activities. The president and general secretary of the previous committee of Chhatra League had to step down on charges of extortion.
The news of the expulsion of four leaders and activists of the BCL from the Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (KUET) appeared in different media on the same day the news and pictures of the rally and celebrations of the founding anniversary of the BCL were published.
Sadman Nahian, general secretary of the KUET Chhatra League, and some students were pressurising the provost of Lalon Shah Hall and professor of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) Selim Hossain to appoint their candidate as the dining hall manager.
On 30 November, they took professor Selim Hossain to his office in the department and put pressure on him to accept their demands. Some even abused him. Professor Selim Hossain died shortly after returning home. The University Teachers' Association and professor Selim's family called it murder.
Who can be blamed for the four students who were expelled from KUET forever? The parents sent these meritorious students to the university for higher studies. But under whose patronage did they get involved in bullying and extortion rather than studying? They have done whatever they wanted on campus as leaders and activists of the ruling student body. If they had not been leaders and activists of the ruling party's student organisations or if they did not have the support of the leadership, they would not have had the guts to put pressure on the teacher or torture him mentally.
The manager of the hall's dining room is a purely administrative matter. Chhatra League leaders and workers have no role in this regard. Yet they carried out that heinous act and pushed a teacher to death. All those who were convicted in the murder of Abrar Fahad at BUET last year are leaders and activists of Chhatra League. How can the organisation avoid its responsibility when the perpetrators committed those misdeeds under the party’s shelter using its name and fame?
It is very unfortunate that the leaders and workers of Chhatra League, which played an important role in all the valiant movements of the country in the past, have ended up this way.