Editorial
Student violence in Rajshahi
Stern action must be taken against the perpetrators
For more than 72 hours till Friday evening the two major campuses of Rajshahi were turned into veritable battlegrounds with the Chhattra League and Shibir supporters conducting chase and counter chase of the opponent. The violence has resulted in the death of a Shibir leader and a large number of students from both the groups have sustained severe injuries. And not surprisingly, the two educational institutions have been closed indefinitely, throwing the already disrupted schedule into further chaos.
In spite of a gentlemen's agreement reportedly between the two groups not to precipitate the situation in the campus, the showdown by them should not have come as a surprise to the administration and the law enforcing agencies. And had they taken adequate measures in time they might well have been able to prevent the violence that ensued. We are worried too that while both the groups are guilty of excesses, the law enforcing agencies had been mere bystanders when the BCL and Shibir cadres were running amok. The police action was perhaps too little and certainly too late.
This situation is totally unacceptable. The country, more so the educational institutions, already plagued by serious session jam, can ill afford to go back to the days of violent campus culture that we had witnessed in the past. We have noticed a proclivity of the student wings of the major parties to capture residential halls. This tendency is reinforced in the students' wing of the party that forms the new government. And Shibir is known to have resorted to very brutal methods like cutting the tendons of the opponents. But it is for the Chhattra League, being affiliated to the largest party leading the coalition, to demonstrate restraint and eschew violence. Pictures of the Chhattra League cadres, brandishing illegal weapons, don't speak well for the party.
There will be allegations and counter allegations and blaming of each other. That notwithstanding, the government must answer for the actions of its students' wing. We see the tendency to use the law enforcing agency as a cover a very ominous sign of the resurrection of past politics. It is for the government to take the lead by coming down hard on its student wings. Before that it will have very little moral standing to take action against those others that are disturbing the atmosphere of the educational institutions.
It is for the AL, being the leader of the grand alliance holding the reins of power, to take steps to rein in its cadres. We are distressed to see the much vaunted politics of change of the AL not reflected in the students' front.
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