Editorial
Dhaka College conundrum
Switch to reasoning, not impulsive action
DISTURBANCES gripped the road stretch from Science Laboratory to Azimpur on Wednesday morning as Dhaka College students clashed with police while demonstrating to press home their demand for upgrading their college into a full-fledged university. Resultantly, several persons were injured, including eight students, two policemen and some pedestrians. Normal traffic flow and business activity in and around the college premises were disrupted as people in the vicinity became panicky.
Dhaka College has often been in the news, not always for the right reasons. As one of the most prestigious colleges in the country, its students are expected to set high standards of morality, behaviour and conduct. Citizens are at a loss to understand why in articulating a demand centring around elevation of the college to university status, the students would have to resort to agitation. There are standard methods of doing so -- represent to the college authority and the college authority in turn taking up the matter with the higher authorities. There are certain criteria for upgrading a college into university and it is upon fulfillment of these that an educational institution is elevated with all the logistical, manpower and financial implications that go with it. So, a process is involved here and even if it is merited, it just can't happen overnight.
At the same time, in controlling such a situation the police should take recourse to persuasion and patient handling appealing to the good sense of the students rather than acting abrasively. True, the police have to maintain public order, but the basic approach ought to be that of trouble-shooting and calming the nerves, if necessary through timely cooperation with the college authorities.
Just as the college authorities need to encourage the students to take to the path of reasoning, dialogue and negotiation which is, of course, better done through elective students unions, so also the Home Ministry needs to analyse typical incidents of police-student confrontations and arrive at a policy solution to what has been a persistently disquieting phenomenon. We have to settle for the best practice approach.
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