Leave the Students Alone
President Shahabuddin Ahmed leads a one-man crusade - from the top - against political criminalisation in any shape or form. In keeping with this overall theme on Saturday he reiterated his call for a consensus between the government and the opposition to abolish their student fronts on the campus and commit themselves to having no links with them in the future.
We fully endorse the President's suggestion and urge the national political parties to delink themselves from student parties as an antidote to campus violence and deteriorating academic standards. It is the goings-on in the universities that set the tenor for the lesser educational institutions of the country. If the national political parties dissociate themselves completely from the student organisations then the latter would be left to plough a lonely furrow with the ball entirely in their court to behave responsibly or invite premature self extinction if they did not. In other words, depending on how student politics fares on its own, the question of whether there should be a temporary moratorium on student politics till it is chastened or reformed can be squarely addressed as well. However, in forging a consensus on the subject the political parties ought to be seized of a possibility that even after the formal delinking between them the politically clipped student bodies might seek the indulgence of political parties with the latter giving it surreptitiously as well. Since the political parties will have a level playing field, when cut off from the student wings they should be only favourably disposed towards the presidential counsel.
A whole range of benefit is derivable from a compliance with the president's advice. The trafficking of money, arms and outsiders into the academic premises can be halted with a greater force when no student group will be able to claim any link to a political party. Feudings and fights on leases and contracts will diminish. In fact, it will have a salubrious effect on the entire law and order situation.
When the elections are nearing, the political parties may be somewhat averse to the idea; but again, this is the right time for them to prove their bona fides in the matter.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments