Several days after the event at Rajshahi University, where the gun toting members of the ruling party were seen attacking the protesting students, the controversy rages on. Given that every media highlighted it, it is odd how the police have behaved so far. It has ceased to become a law and order issue and continues to take on political tones making it another AL-BNP-JI triangular fight. Most probably this was an extension of that anyway but the government spin doctors are busy proving the criminals were Shibir activists and hence the attack-counter attacks by the identified BCL cadres are sort of OK. Just after publishing a survey report five days after getting elected, which is saying that the AL is more popular than the BNP, is the government also trying to show what future holds for us?
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The students of Rajshahi University were agitating against fees enhancement and there are many factors around it that need to be considered and discussed. But the issue is not education but campus violence and right under the nose of the law enforcing agencies. In a strange way, the name Joutho Bahini has gained new meaning with the police baton charging and firing teargas shells with students using guns — both aimed at the same crowd. It’s entirely possible the BNP-JI alliance members were involved but the point was that the AL was visibly leading the attack. Politics in Bangladesh is always about power and glory of the rulers and while it may be a crude demonstration, the fact remains, it was a confirmation that in the state of Bangladesh, it’s business as usual again. Election will have little or no impact on the language of politics and violence.
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Two things are becoming clear. One, the government can distinctly avoid taking public opinion into account. The attacks by the ruling party cadres could not have happened unless the government had given some sort of a ‘go ahead’ which allowed the police to stand silently as the attacks took place. It’s probably the same way with the BNP. In fact, would anyone have bothered had the media not stepped in? The media clearly knew that unless it took a factual stand, the credibility would have been damaged and so reporting in the media even by those inclined towards the concerned party have not toed the party line. For the moment, it has caused some discomfort to the government but one is sure that they will overcome this. Media has become the people’s only or final friend, flaws and all.
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The reaction by the senior ministers of the government was irresponsible if not silly and shows that the AL has found in the Jamaat a great excuse to blame everything on it. Both the education minister and the state minister for home denied the AL involvement and blamed the Jamaat-e-Islami. This was stated even before the investigation committee was formed. It would thus seem that no matter who does what in the Rajshahi University campus or elsewhere, Jamaat is going to be blamed. In the last few years it has become a common habit of the ruling party to deny that criminal elements belong within. It was the same with the Biswajit murder case, it was the same with Rana Plaza and this time around it is no different. A culture of impunity and denial has set in.
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When the prime minister stood in the parliament to defend the position of the government she didn’t deny that the Chattra League boys were not responsible but hinted at shared responsibility with Shibir and the BNP. After her usual trashing of ‘civil society’ which really sounds bad nowadays, she has promised investigation and trials and one certainly hopes that the guilty will be punished. But the initial denial that the government party was involved and later a grudging admission that they were there but so were others show that nobody has as yet felt responsible for continuing this dangerous culture of mainstreaming political violence particularly in the campus space.
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If the situation didn’t change much with an election and the situation remains more or less the same, what was the outcome of the electoral process? Part of that mishap was motivated by the absence of the BNP from the political scene. BNP absolutely misread the situation thinking people, tired of the AL rule, will rush out to install them in power. But in the end game, the AL outwitted the BNP whose analysis of the situation was wrong and who were left standing helplessly sucking their political thumb. Now the cement is looking to be set for the next five years and there is no reason why the AL would want to change the scene. BNP is skittled out.
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The danger is that this rule without any meaningful opposition can lead to assumptions of impunity and collective sense of invulnerability by the rulers. It means ruling without accountability and manifest responsibility. In the absence of a BNP, which resembles the AL the most and are both part of the mainstream, it’s the extremist forces that will have better chances of survival and though they are considerably less, they are long term agents of force. As various contemporary scenario shows, militancy can’t be ended by violence and only politics can do that. Unfortunately, the last election through the actions of both parties have severely dented the political structure. Which is why the problem is not about who held the guns at Rajshahi University but that everyone denied the role of the ruling party and blamed others. It’s this mindset that the “ruler can do no wrong’ is what democracy fights. Our tragedy is, even after all these years, we are yet to find our way out of this swamp of political morbidity.
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Md. A Hossain is a HR activist teaching at a private university.
Source3: bdnews24
These are Sheikh Hasina’s boys. This type of violence is similar to What her father used to do except the guns. Sheikh Mujib was the Lathial for Shaheed Suhrawardy. That is how Awami League was born. This violence was allowed to be permeated to their student wing. But Hasina keeps lying. She keep blaming others for doing these.