The general students of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology continued their movement for the fifth consecutive day on Tuesday to keep the campus free from politics.
In an open letter to prime minister Sheikh Hasina they urged her to keep their campus free from politics.
On the same day, the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling Awami League, announced a four-point programme to bring back regular political activities on the BUET campus.
The programmes are a sit-in programme at BUET Shaheed Minar area to demand the return of BUET student Imtiaz Hossen’s residential hall seat, seeking opinion and discussion with BUET students to formulate a work plan for establishing modern, smart, and policy-based regular student politics, organising seminars and cultural festivals to keep BUET free from the shadow of communalism, fundamentalism, and extremism, and discussion with the administration to demand student union elections at BUET.
The BCL announced the programme after the High Court on Monday allowed the activities of all political organisations on the BUET campus, responding to a writ petition filed by BCL central committee member Imtiaz Hossen
Imtiaz, a civil engineering department student at BUET, has been organising the showdown of BCL leaders and supporters on the campus since March 29.
The BUET authorities cancelled his permission as a resident student following the demands of protesting students.
BUET general students, however, have been demanding the permanent expulsion of Imtiaz and some other students for resuming BCL activities on the BUET campus on March 29 through a showdown defying the ban.
The university authorities banned political activities on the campus following general students’ protests in the wake of the killing of BUET student Abrar Fahad by some BCL leaders at the university’s Sher-e-Bangla Hall on October 7, 2019.
On Tuesday, some of the protesters said that they would continue their movement by boycotting all academic activities until they realised their demands and the campus returned to its previous state.
Administrative activities, however, are going on as usual.
The protesting students started the ‘No_STUDENTS_POLITICS_IN_BUET’ hashtag movement on their social media accounts on Monday night.
The protesting students read out the open letter at a press briefing held at the MA Rashid Administrative Building on the BUET campus around 6:00pm on Tuesday.
‘We do not understand the intricacies of the politics of fear,’ the letter read, ‘we only know how to love the country and its people. We are determined to prove it through our work.’
The letter also read that the students are against all forms of violence and vandalism on campus, while they believe that a peaceful and conducive environment is essential for academic excellence.
The students urged the prime minister in the letter to take the necessary steps to ensure that BUET remains a free and democratic institution.
‘The students of the university have played an active role in forming public opinion in this country. However, in recent years, we have witnessed only the negative aspects of power in the name of student politics on the BUET campus,’ the letter read.
Referring to the country’s founding president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s vision for BUET, the students said in the letter that ‘our demand is to implement his vision.’
‘Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman understood that BUET was different in nature. That is why he himself kept this university out of the realm of politics,’ the letter continued.
It also read that the recent attempt to resume politics on the BUET campus at any cost is an insult to the ideals and decisions of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Meanwhile, the BCL held an emergency press conference on the current situation of BUET at the Madhur Canteen of Dhaka University on Tuesday afternoon.
BCL president Saddam Hossain Saddam did not announce any specific date for the implementation of their programmes for BUET.
‘We will announce the dates later. Since the exams are going on at BUET, BCL will not take any programme that will disrupt their academic activities,’ he said, adding, ‘we will implement the programme at a time when BUET’s academic activities can continue smoothly.’
In a written statement, Saddam also said, ‘BUET students will themselves elect their leadership spontaneously. The leadership will be idealistic and patriotic and will create world-class innovators and entrepreneurs from among the students of BUET.’
‘In the future, BUET will have student politics that will stop the brain drain,’ he said, referring to the significant number of BUET teachers and students travelling abroad every year for higher education.
Bangladesh Chhatra Odhikar Parishad on Tuesday formed a human chain at the base of the Raju sculpture on the Dhaka University campus to express solidarity with the ongoing movement of BUET students.
Chhatra Odhikar Parishad president Bin Yamin Mollah at the programme accused the BCL of establishing its supremacy in BUET, keeping its ‘gun on the neck of the court.’
‘The students’ protest to keep BUET out of politics is their civil and political right and must be respected. The authorities have a responsibility to protect the students from political interference and intimidation,’ said Saad Hammadi, an independent human rights advocate and researcher, in a statement.
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