The newly appointed top leaders of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) on Sunday vowed to turn BCL a controversy free student organisation as per the instruction of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. They assured that if evidence of extortion or tender rigging is found against any BCL activist, stern action would be taken instantly against him or her.
BCL acting president Al Nahian Khan Joy and general secretary Lekhak Bhattacharya made the remarks while addressing a press briefing at Madhur Canteen on Dhaka University campus. Earlier on Saturday evening, the ruling Awami League removed top leaders of its student wing BCL following allegations that the president and general secretary of the organisation were engaged in extortion. Rezwanul Haque Chowdhury Shovon and Golam Rabbani were sacked from president and general secretary posts of BCL at a meeting of the AL’s Central Working Committee headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The meeting asked the organisation’s senior vice-president Al Nahian Khan Joy and joint general secretary Lekhak Bhattacharjee to act as the president and general secretary respectively, said AL’s general secretary Obaidul Quader after the meeting. At the briefing, BCL acting general secretary Lekhak Bhattacharya said, “The big challenge we are going to face is to form committees and arrange the next Chhatra League council within next 10 months.”
“We will take Chhatra League to a stage beyond controversy, so that no journalist can raise any negative allegation against us,” he added. “We will make BCL united under a single banner. There will be no culture of politics centring a specific leader. We will try to strengthen the hand of Sheikh Hasina.”
“Our first priority will be to overcome all the allegations raised against Shovon and Rabbani, and remain careful that no complaint can be raised against us.” The BCL GS also sought all out co operation of senior Awami League leaders, Low enforcement agencies and media personalities to run the BCL properly”,
Regarding the deprived leader from the central committee he said, “We called them to place their allegations direct to us and we will definitely do Justice to all adding that ‘we will not let anyone deprived from post that has dedication and sacrificed for the organization’. Lekhak said that they would not let repeat of these allegation came against previous president and secretary adding that “before making a leaders in any level we will scrutinize all of his information and also take help of detective branch of law enforcement agencies if needed”. On September 14, Prime Minister and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina selected the new central leadership and asked the former president and general secretary, Rejwanul Haque Choudhury Shovon and Golam Rabbani, to resign.
The decision comes at a time when the ruling party's student wing is suffering from a severe image crisis. BCL Senior Vice-President Al Nahian Khan Joy and Joint General Secretary Lekhak Bhattacharjee of have been given the charges of president and general secretary.
