The government and students against quota system in public services seem to have taken hardline as both the camps may take to the streets today (Sunday), raising a fresh round of tension among the people.
The protesters have a plan to place a memorandum before the President on Sunday through a mass foot procession while the law enforcing agencies issued a note of warning of taking stern action for any road blocking.
Amid the tensed situation, home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal advised the students to go to the court instead of blocking roads.
“What will be the result by blocking roads? It will increase sufferings of the people. I think they can place their arguments before the court in line with the advice of the Chief Justice,” he said on Saturday.
The government wants the protesting students to return to classes as the matter has been pending with the court while the students vow to continue their ongoing movement until the government enacts a law abolishing the quota system.
While announcing programme for Sunday, Nahid Islam, one of the coordinators of the movement, said, “We will go for a mass foot procession towards the Bangabhaban to place a memorandum before the President tomorrow.”
He alleged that the government using the state machinery is trying to stop the spontaneous movement.
Another coordinator and member secretary of Students Federation Umama Fatema told the Bangladesh Post that they would not stay away from the movement despite hurdles.
“We will be on the roads till the end. We will remain alert so that none can divert our movement,” she added.
Bangladesh Chhatra League president Saddam Hossain told the Bangladesh Post that the general students are no longer with the movement as the movement has been diverted with an ill motive.
“Yet, if the protesters try to go for wagingthe movement, the Bangladesh Chhatra League along with the general students will resist the movement,” he said.
Abolishing the quota system, the government in 2018 through a circular said direct recruitment in all government jobs in 9th grade (old first class) and from 10th to 13th grade (old second class) will be completely based on merit.
But, such a situation emerges following a judgment of the High Court on June 5 paving the way for reinstating the 30 per cent quota for the children of freedom fighters in government service.
Raising voice against disparity, students from across the country have been blocking roads and railway tracks to realise their demand of abolition of the quota system.
There were some 56 percent quota for government jobs till 2018. Of them, 30 percent is for children and grandchildren of freedom fighters, 10 percent each for women and people of under-privileged districts, five percent for minority people and one percent for people with disability.
Some protesters, however, think that the government may keep five per cent quota at the highest for the students with disabilities and minority communities while students of the Chhatra Dal, the student wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, bats for the quota system only for the students with disabilities.
Amid the tensed situation, a police constable on Friday filed a case with the Shahbagh Police Station over the vandalism of a police armoured vehicle and water cannon. The number of suspects was not specified in the case, filed by constable Khalilur Rahman, the driver of the armoured police vehicle.
Senior ministers, law enforcement agencies and Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling party, have already issued a note of warning against the protesters saying that tough action would be taken if the students block roads in the name of their anti-quota movement.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Habibur Rahman also warned students involved in the protest that any act in breach of law and order would not be allowed.
The ruling camp also smelt a rat over the movement as the opposition parties, including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, are fueling the students to gain political mileage.
Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader on Saturday said that the demands and statements of the quota protesters are contradictory to the Constitution and the fundamental principles of the state.
“The law regarding the quota system will proceed on at its own pace,” he told a briefing at AL president political office at Dhanmondi.
Emphasising the necessity of the quota system in the country’s current context, Quader said a vested group is attempting to exploit the quota reform movement in their personal interests.
