BNP’s student wing jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal has firmly ruled out any alliance with student organisations that oppose the singing of the national anthem, calling it a matter of fundamental national identity.
Speaking at a July Martyrs’ Remembrance event on Wednesday evening at the Teachers-Student Cultural Centre (TSC) of Rajshahi University, Chhatra Dal central general secretary Nasir Uddin Nasir said, “A few months ago during a demonstration at Shahbagh demanding a ban on Awami League, some groups including Chhatra Shibir participated but said the national anthem should not be sung. Any nationalist student
organisation cannot unite with groups that reject the national anthem.”
Nasir also alleged that in the past, members of Chhatra Shibir helped Chhatra League activists evade arrest. “It was part of a strategy. Now, many from Chhatra League have joined Shibir. This has been seen in Gazipur, Chawkbazar and Chattogram,” he said.
Citing the example of Chattogram University, Nasir claimed that “notorious Chhatra League cadres later became hall presidents for Shibir.” Chhatra Dal central vice-president Md Zahir Raihan Ahmed said the popular uprising of July-August was not a one-day affair. “This time last year there was curfew, internet blackout, and house raids. The uprising was the result of a long and determined struggle,” he stated.
Presiding over the meeting, RU Chhatra Dal convenor Sultan Ahmed Rahi said, “After August 5, we resumed politics with new hope. But the politics of Islami Chhatra Shibir and Jamaat have destabilised the country. The damage they have caused is unlike anything we’ve seen before.”
The event also included prayers for those killed in the July uprising and the recent military plane crash in Milestone college in Uttara, Dhaka.
The event was moderated by RU Chhatra Dal’s senior joint convenor Sardar Rashed Ali and attended by teachers and activists from pro-BNP organisations including the Rajshahi University Nationalist Teachers’ Forum.