Editorial
Polytechnic Institute incident
Why this wanton violence?
The clashes between the activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League and Islami Chhatra Shibir at the Dhaka Polytechnic Institute on Sunday, which left at least 40 students injured, are a sad reminder of the violent nature of campus politics that severely disrupts normal academic activities from time to time.
On this occasion, violence erupted from a trifling incident and the supporters of the two student outfits instantly pounced on each other. That is an indication of the combat-readiness of the politicised student leaders and activists engaged in a senseless struggle for supremacy over their rivals in the educational institutions. They were equipped with lethal arms as they chased and counter-chased each other and finally took the matter to the streets, where vehicles, having nothing to do with student politics, were vandalised freely. It is this latter part of the story which is cause for even greater concern. Even students of a polytechnic institute apparently failed to realise that they committed a culpable crime, one that did no harm to their perceived enemies, in the process of settling scores. This is highly regrettable, to say the least.
When religious fanaticism enters the domain of politics things further worsen. Shibir uses religion to promote its narrow political end, which we think is an insult to religion itself.
The activists of the student bodies affiliated with the major political parties have also failed miserably to avoid violence or vandalism, which only tend to undermine their image in the public eye. Small wonder, a consensus has almost emerged that student parties should be de-linked with national political parties.
The Polytechnic Institute incident shows that virulent student politics, as we have witnessed over the years, cannot possibly be contained as long as the student activists work under the protective umbrella of this or that political party. The parties, for their part, have never lived up to their promise of not using the students as pawns. However, the issue needs to be resolved in the interest of the vast majority of innocent students paying a high price for campus politics in all its ugly manifestations.
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