Faruque Ahmed
The situation at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) is highly volatile and annoying at the moment following the physical assault of some teachers by Bangladesh Chatra League (BCL) cadres last week. The teachers were attacked as they gathered on the campus to march to the VC office to lay siege and to force him to resign. Since the VC is an Awami League nominee and the teachers who want to remove him is a breakaway faction dominated by leftist teachers, the BCL cadres are at work to protect him. They beat the anti-VC teachers and foiled their latest move last week.
Earlier the anti-VC group also manhandled the VC while they were abstaining from administrative work for the last five months often shelving the classes. In fact the fight to remove the VC appears to have gained a momentum.
Suspension didn’t work
But the physical manhandling of the teachers has simply hit the sentiment of the entire university community shaming the nation but this incident is no surprising either in view of the violent nature of the ruling party student cadres. They are enjoying impunity from being charged for involvement in any crime and violence; they seem to fear nobody.
Nonetheless, the outcry against the BCL activists condemning their attacks on a faction of SUST teachers from the wider teaching community and the country’s socio-political leaderships have created an embarrassing situation for the government. Prime minister Sheikh Hasina was both angry and embarrassed and immediately ordered a purge in the student body’s ranks and file blaming that criminals and intruders have infiltrated organization and they must be rooted out.
Accordingly, seven BCL leaders of the SUST were temporarily suspended from BCL as well as the ‘Varsity as an immediate damage control measure. Many however believe that temporary suspension is a mere face saving devise. This proved to be an eye wash when one of the suspended students was allowed to appear in the departmental semester examination on Wednesday.
The genesis
The campus violence has a long history. In a way, it is also part of the maladies that has been afflicted the universities of Dhaka, Jahangirnanagar and the BUET. In Sylhet, it is basically a fight between different groups of teachers who stand against each other and the group supported by the ruling party is gaining the upper hand. It used to be a fight between two groups known as pro-BNP and pro-Awami League. The BNP-Jamaat group was strong when the BNP was in power and dominated the campus politics. But this group has been marginalized now. The pro-government teachers have become divided now into pro-AL and broadly anti-AL pro-left factions.
The government appointed Prof Aminul Islam Bhuiyan as Vice Chancellor in 2013 but the anti-AL faction, also apparently supported by the marginalized BNP-Jamaat group began to campaign against him from April this year. They even resigned from 37 administrative posts of the SUST establishments to bring pressure on the VC to resign after failing to run the varsity. They blamed him for misbehaving with some of their members, making appointments breaking the rules and misuse the SUST funds including expensive foreign tours. A vilification campaign against the VC goes on unabated. But what sustained him so far was support from a large number of the pro-AL teachers and thus the stalemate continues.
Since the VC was government appointed, the ruling party’s Students’ front BCL has provided him the protection. In fact, the event on the campus last week highlighted the breakdown of discipline in which teachers and students were engaged fighting each other. Informed sources also blame local politics as the main cause of the fight.
The anti-VC faction is known to be led by Prof Mohammad Zafar Iqbal, but he keeps himself away from open campus hostility apparently to remain above controversy. But his wife’s active role – who is also a teacher in SUST – show the real character of the fight.
It needs political solution
In fact local Awami League has openly become hostile to Prof Mohammad Zafar Iqbal for being antagonistic to the incumbent VC. Besides, some of his earlier suggestions for admission is said to have gone against local interest.
He led a march in Sylhet city after the killing of blogger Ananta Dev in May this year criticizing the government’s inaction in finding the killers and arrest them. This annoyed the local ruling party leaders and he was chased from the street by local Awami League cadres led by a local lawmaker, also a member of SUST syndicate. Reports say the law maker and Prof Mohammad Zafar Iqbal again traded hot words in the syndicate meeting last week showing that the ‘oust the VC campaign’ is political. The ruling party cadres are protecting the VC while the rival groups joined by the weakened BNP-Jamaat group are opposing.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Naheed, who is from Sylhet had intervened urging restraint from both sides, but has failed to break the stalemate. As the government appoints the VCs and replaces them, the problem is unlikely to end until a political decision is taken to end the crisis.
Meanwhile, the varsity may remain a hostage and its academic sessions will continue to suffer. The new first year admission may also face a setback.
Source: Weekly Holiday
