Feature

On Present-Day Student Politics

Kazi S.M. Khasrul Alam Quddusi

Undeniably, student politics played a heroic role in our history. For many a year, however, it has become just a weapon of fulfilling some people's self-interests only. Meanwhile, teachers' politics in the form of some teachers' direct link-up with party politics - some even working as virtual party activists -constantly contribute to the stinking students' politics on the campuses.

Consequently, the campuses and dormitories of most of the public universities often turned into war fields on a regular basis and universities incurred serious loss in terms of quality and time. Truly, even in 1990, student leaders became instrumental in ousting the autocratic government of that time. We also know some of the leaders of anti-Ershad movement became rich overnight and their followers - so-called student leaders - became virtual gang leaders.

Thus, general students were turned strangers on the campuses as goons - cadres of various student wings of political parties - took control of the same by muscle power and lethal weapons. And, scenes of swooping on rival groups of students by groups of hoodlums -- students or masqueraded as students -- were quite a routine affair in the universities for many years.

And, the results were simply unbearable for the general students in the form of loss of valuable time, death of innocent students, grievous injuries, and awful financial hardships and so on.

Interestingly yet painfully, students of various departments pretended even not to recognise teachers of their own departments despite being taught by them for years. Actually, they did not want to recognise the teachers as they were to implement the agenda of their godfathers for which, for sure, their real fathers had not sent them to university.

Interestingly, however, following such an almost similar assault - goons were armed with rods on that occasion - on general students, it was learnt that the incident had been orchestrated by one or a group of teachers vying for the post of vice-chancellor and other lucrative posts. In fact, this was not the first of its kind; it was rather simulation of many other such incidents in the past.

Here, an innovative tactic was used to be applied by ambitious ones and that was to use cadres - masqueraded as students - in creating anarchy on the campus to prove the sitting vice-chancellor as unfit for the post. Meanwhile, the sitting vice-chancellor - kept on cajoling the student leaders of the student wings and remained ready to provide any favour to the latter for staying in the post.

Arguably, elements protected by student wings of political parties even beat up university teachers. In the past couple of years, a number of teachers have been injured allegedly in direct collaboration with the student leaders. However, for such deplorable conditions of even the teachers, some teachers are also greatly responsible. Involvement in dirty politics and unscrupulous partisanship became so ingrained that some groups of teachers were not even ready to sympathise with the assaulted one if he had not belonged to their group.

On the contrary, they rejoiced at the assault. What an irony! They blindly and vigorously took sides with the mighty student leaders. Moreover, one would definitely feel pity to observe the desperation among some politicised teachers to save and promote the student leaders they were connected, or rather, loyal to.

To put it bluntly, student leaders and cadres - lackeys of criminalised political parties - pretending to belong to various ideologies became real demons on the campuses. They became so recalcitrant that even students coming to appear at admission tests were not spared. But, are university campuses and halls supposed to be war fields? I can, however, tell it with conviction that this sort of student politics is nothing but a cursed thing, more so for numerous victims and their families.

It is also common knowledge in the universities that many reluctant students have to join student wings of political parties just for getting a seat in the dormitory. They even have to engage in serious party activities, that too, against their will in the face of browbeating by gang leaders. Tales of brilliant students' careers being ruined due to contemporary brand of student politics are also commonplace.

Assistant Professor, Department of Public Administration, University of Chittagong
E-mail:khasru74@yahoo.com