The students under the banner ‘Students against Repression’ formed a human chain at the foot of Raju Sculpture near Teacher-Student Centre (TSC) around noon on Tuesday. Umme Habiba, president of the platform said the students had a just demand and it was natural that they were facing obstacles and that they would not backtrack but continue the movement against quota in civil service.
The students held the protest programme a day after at least 13 people were injured in the BCL-led attack on quota reformists-six at Dhaka University and seven at Rajshahi University. Meanwhile, another group of students under the banner of ‘General students’ formed a separate human chain at the Dhaka University.
But also on Tuesday police allegedly assaulted a Dhaka University teacher when a platform of parents and teachers gathered at the Jatiya Press Club in Dhaka for holding a demonstration programme expressing concern over the detention of quota reform leaders. They expressed concern over the attacks and the reported inaction of the law enforcers in the matter. However, police foiled the gathering saying participants of any protest or demonstration would be detained immediately.
In April, students of public and private universities across the country took to the streets demanding reforms in the quota system. In the wake of the protests, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, during a parliamentary session on April 11, declared the abolition of quotas. After the government’s failure to issue a gazette notification on the PM’s announcement, the quota reform platform started an indefinite boycott of classes and examinations at all universities and colleges on May 14. They gave an ultimatum for the publication of the notification by May 13.
On May 21, quota reform demonstrators postponed their decision of boycotting examinations considering the month of Ramadan and at the prospect of “session jams” the strike might have caused. However, on June 26, the PM suggested continuation of the existing freedom fighter quota in civil service.
The students of Dhaka University took part and were leaders of the glorious Language Movement of 1952 and the Independence Movement which began in the 1960s and continued till the War of Liberation. They are the future natural leaders of the nation. As such, any attempt to foil and suppress their rightful and legitimate aspirations does not bode well for the body politic of Bangladesh.
If their demands are misguided then they can be gently admonished as to what is right or wrong. It is difficult enough to find jobs so the removal of quotas for government jobs is a rightful demand to ensure that the most meritorious and deserving get the jobs. Quotas only ensure that political considerations play an active part and those who may not even be capable of getting jobs get one.
In the world quotas are considered an objectionable practice. The U.S. Justice Department is confronting Harvard University and other elite colleges that blatantly discriminate against Asian-American applicants with a quota system. To get into Harvard, students of Asian heritage have to score hundreds of points higher on competitive exams than non-Asian applicants with similar or even inferior academic records. That’s why even the Trump administration’s Justice Department is demanding Harvard’s admissions records and launching an investigation.
In the wake of these protests in the quota systems in civil service recruitment, the government formed a seven-member committee “to review or reform or cancel” the system on July 2nd .The committee led by Cabinet Secretary M Shafiul Alam was asked to give their report within 15 working days. Doing this now only proves that the students had a valid point all along. Thus the attacks on them by ruling BCL cadres must be condemned and those responsible punished in the strongest possible terms.
Our students are our future-they are not political fodders to be crushed brutally. The protesting students are also a part of the Liberation War when the liberation was the people’s war for their liberation from injustices.
In the present situation they are demanding nothing more than what the Prime Minister on the floor of the parliament though wholly her creation promised to abolish the quota system. The question is who are now creating obstructions.
The present government claims to be the government of Liberation War fighters and as such they are their own justification. In short, they are a revolutionary government. But what is forgotten is the objective of liberation war was not to use brutal force to suppress dissent. And our war Liberation War was the people’s war and not the war of few who went to India.
It is dangerous to use the Liberation War to be exploited by the few. We all know our Liberation War. We also know that India conclude the war as war between Pakistan and India. So it is gravely wrong to smell Jamaat supporters fuelling the movement against quota system.
