Three leftist student organisations boycotted a Dhaka University meeting on campus politics on Sunday, protesting the participation of Islami Chhatra Shibir.
The day-long meeting, which ran from noon to 7:00pm, was organised by the university administration to seek opinions from active student organisations ahead of the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) election. Most participants supported retaining hall-based politics, while the DUCSU polls were also discussed.
President of the DU unit of Bangladesh Chattra Union Meghmallar Basu said reason behind the boycott was “a banned organisation like Islami Chhatra Shibir is allowed to participate in every event.”
Shibir leaders dismissed the boycott, with DU unit president S M Forhad saying, “A couple of organisations have said that if we are present, they will not participate — we are not concerned about that. These groups had once strengthened fascism.”
The Democratic Students’ Council opposed political structures in halls and classrooms, warning that politics would revive “mass room” and “guest room” cultures, said its DU convener Abdul Kader.
Bangladesh Jatiotabadi Chhatra Dal accused the Chhatra League of instilling fear among students for over 15 years. “Our number one agenda was to ban secret politics in DU,” said central president Rakibul Islam Rakib.
Vice-Chancellor Niaz Ahmed Khan said the aim of the talks was to prevent confrontation. “We have started discussions on what a student-friendly political framework should look like, preferably beginning from the hall level and then extending to the campus level,” he said.
