Syed Badrul Ahsan
The agitating teachers of Jahangirnagar University who have kept Vice Chancellor Anwar Hossain confined to his office room for the past four days have embarrassed all of us and our country before the rest of the world.
It is one of those dark periods in the history of higher education in Bangladesh when academics unhappy with a vice chancellor have resorted to the odious job of locking him in his office, without a thought to the immorality of their action, to the patent fact that they have rendered themselves guilty of a violation of the human rights of a citizen. The law as well as morality imparts the lesson that when a citizen’s freedom of movement is curtailed or blocked by other citizens, no matter what the nature of the dispute between them, it is the law and decency that are at risk.
The teachers demanding the removal of Prof Anwar Hossain have sent out a very wrong and dangerous message to the nation — that if a group of individuals do not particularly like a set of circumstances not just at a university but elsewhere in the country as well, it is all right to push the man or woman at the top into the condition of a hostage. Vice Chancellor Anwar Hossain has had his rights violated, has been a hostage, has been under tremendous psychological strain because he has refused to resign in line with the demands of those who want him to go. And those who want him to go have, through their unethical action of blocking the free movement of the VC, informed us all that values do not matter, that teachers at higher educational institutions can and will stoop to illegal acts in their narrow selfish interests.
The agitating teachers have brought eighteen charges of wrongdoing against the VC. It should have been for them to press for those charges to be looked into through means other than subjecting the VC to physical ordeal. That they opted for a course which rides roughshod over the law is an act no conscious citizen can accept with equanimity. Add to that the misbehaviour of an agitating teacher with the spouse of the VC. And then consider the grave damage being done to education by these teachers, who remain unmoved by the difficulties they have been putting their students into. Of course, the agitating teachers describe their action as a movement. Now that they have chosen to confine the VC to his office room against his will, their action clearly calls for a strong, clear and clear legal response from the authorities.
To be sure, the demands made by the teachers against the VC must be considered on their merit. To be sure, the position adopted by the VC must be examined against the background of the on-going trouble. But what must not be allowed to go unchallenged is the unadulterated criminality the agitating teachers, under the banner of Sadharon Shikkhok Forum, have perpetrated for the past four days.
Our heads hang low at the behaviour of the teachers who have likely set a very bad precedent by keeping Prof Anwar Hossain a prisoner to their ferocious whimsicality. Is this how they mean to prepare their students for the future? Are they conveying the message that the law is indeed an ass, that it is all right for reason to take flight, for individuals to be kidnapped, abducted, confined and subjected to innumerable other indignities? Tomorrow school headmasters and college principals and other university vice chancellors will be made prisoners in their rooms. The day after, parents will find themselves locked in by their offspring. Officers at government and non-government institutions will be under lock and key by those working under them.
At a university, education means a heightened sense of perception of the world around us.
But at Jahangirnagar University, these educated, agitating teachers have just informed us that the line between education and ignorance is fast getting blurred.
Education must be retrieved from the hands of those who would make a travesty of it.
The agitating teachers, after meeting the education minister last night, have said the discussions were fruitful. We hope they really were.
Source: The Daily Star
