Let me first make my stand clear on the recent student movement, throughout the country, for reforms to the quota system currently existing in the government jobs.
It is simple, that I have unreserved support for it, for the movement seemed to me one that has very uncompromisingly hit the long-drawn-out discriminatory system under question whether or not the percentage reserved for the special sections of the citizens is really appropriate at this stage of the country which is evidently enjoying a balanced economic growth, much ahead of the situations back in the three decades after liberation in 1971.
Instead of judging its merit, the movement has been blatantly attempted to give a political color and brand as one by the anti-liberation elements, quite similar to the scenarios in the past. The Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor has gone step ahead by comparing the student movement to that of al-Qaeda.
Taking resort to barefaced lies by the administration and inhuman torture inflicted upon the reformist students by the ruling party allied student front, Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), is utter disappointing especially because the movers have been made an opposition force against the sitting government. But this was not to be.
The past couple of weeks witnessed a bare manifestation of absolute brutality, of spite on the Dhaka University campus and at other universities in the country.
Quota reformists were mercilessly beaten, their bones were broken into pieces, the injured were made leave the government hospitals, the female students were assaulted publicly and were also threatened of rape, aggrieved parents and citizens were driven away from in front of the national press club, and what not!
But not a single word has been spent, in sympathy of the wounded, either by the government or by the university administrations. Nor did any rights activists or organizations denounce these criminal activities or rape threat. The so-called civil society kept their mouth shut, this time.
Some people, during the movement in April this year, felt like vomiting on the quota reformists. What has happened to them now? What else is needed, actually, to realize that the human rights situation, in the past couple of weeks, was thrown at stake?
What else does one need to speak up for the wounded that students had the right to raise voice for their logical demands, their expectations from the State, or their right to avail of government healthcare, at least?
To me, these students did not appear as anti-liberation forces. Rather, their voices seemed to be originally coming out of pains and sufferings they have gone through while sitting for government job examinations one after another but unfortunately failing to get one owing to the limited scope for those who have no quota.
We saw, in April, students chanting slogans, in the largest ever student gatherings in the recent past, putting photos of the father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on their chest and back to press home their demand of logical quota reforms, but not its abolishment.
The prime minister herself declared, in the parliament, to cancel the quota system. The declaration by the executive head of the country came as 'biriyani' while students demanded ordinary 'boiled rice.'
About two and a half months passed by without any visible move by the government and its administration regarding forming a committee in this regard. In the mean time, ruling party lawmakers and cabinet members continued letting their anger out, against the quota reformists, either before the media or in the public meetings.
The cabinet secretary also made several media statements that there was no apparent movement so far to form the committee. All these might have put students in a situation of confusion -- rather than 'disbelief' as claimed by some government quarters -- on the government decision since there was no gazette notification in this regard.
That uncertainty, looming gradually, might have pushed them to go for a press conference in front of the central library of Dhaka University with a view to giving the government a reminder call. But the students were not allowed to say a single word before the media.
They were beaten in an uncivilized manner. And look who did this 'great' work. The BCL men -- who, on that particular day, posed both as the university administration and as the law enforcers. They beat the students, and those same people took the injured students to the nearby police station. What a dutiful student organization the BCL is!
They did it because they sensed an imminent violence in the campus by the quota reformists. It is yet to understand clearly how unarmed people could create violence in the campus. Those who claimed to have taken the position, on the campus, to avoid any untoward incident carried out a bigger mayhem by themselves.
The BCL leaders claimed they were, primarily, students and then BCL activists; therefore they had the right to prevent any dark elements from destabilizing the peaceful environment of the university. Well, who has given them the right to smack fellow students?
The laws of the State? The Constitution? Or, can a group people of the same political belief do whatever they intend to? Is the country a lawless one? Absurdity should have a limit.
In the subsequent days of the eventful weeks, no student gathering was allowed to take place, and it was alleged that BCL men threatened the student leaders by personally going to their houses.
The parents and wife of Rashed Khan -- a quota reforms movement leader -- alleged in the media the other day that they were threatened over telephone that their family would be disappeared if they did not bring back their son from the movement.
The family claimed they have preserved the mobile number from which the call was made. While originality about such claims needs an investigation, it is also essential to bear in mind the present developments in regard to the quota reforms movement.
Bangladesh is a democratic country whose constitution guarantees its citizens the right to speak out and go for movement on any logical demand. This is the spirit of the war of liberation, and through this call Bangabandhu became the unconditional leader of the then East Pakistan.
There must not be a compromise in regard to the question of legitimate demands. These are the teachings of Bangabandhu, which seem to have been truly grabbed in the heart by the quota reformists.
The incidents over the past weeks will be counted as unprecedented in the days to come. The young generation, currently comprising the largest part of the total population of the country, should not have been hammered at their backbones.
A state should not waste its youths who can be true resources for the state's prosperity. Moreover, in the national election by the end of this year, this huge number of young people could be a deciding factor who might have already developed a bad impression about the ruling party.
These incidents could have been avoided, very aptly, by forming the committee much earlier. But an intended delay has only deepened the crisis.
Bringing solutions to the problem, by responding to the timely call of the students, and also ensuring due punishment to the miscreants in the BCL, who intended to scratch on the image of the ruling Awami League, the government still could win the heart of the young voters. But here lies a big question. Does the AL have that intention?
The writer is a journalist.
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