As the common students aspire the Dhaka University Central Student Union (DUCSU) to go towards a new way of doing things in order to quench their thirst for making the country’s second parliament vibrant and rewarding, it is yet to earn any stupendous achievement. The election to the DUCSU took place early this year harbouring much protests and student’s hope and enthusiasm, reminding all that the ‘second parliament’ of the country bears the great and historic responsibilities to uphold student’s voice firmly and the democratic polity as well.
After completing about 7 month of its debuting, it seems unlikely to implement most of the promises of its electoral manifesto as the DUCSU has so far been confined to only holding seminars, symposiums, workshops and so on. The DUCSU’s promise to solve common student’s grave problems remains sorely in paper.
The Bangladesh Post interviewed DUCSU representatives to know about the stumbling block to implementing key issues of the manifesto and also about their understandable slow walk that seems widespread all over the Dhaka University campus. DUCSU Vice-president (VP) Nurul Haque Nur alleged that the lack of coordination among the elected representatives of the DUCSU is the key obstacle to make the second parliament effective. After a long vacuum of nearly three decades, the election to the Dhaka University Central Student Union (DUCSU) took place this year amid much protest alongside student’s greater hopes and expectations, he added.
He said “The BCL occupied 23 posts out of 25, and they are not responding to most of my initiatives to probe me a failed leader. I and social service secretary Akhter am trying our best to break down the deadlock, but it’s difficult for us to work freely in such condition,’’ ‘‘We are working to get rid of the Guest Room and Gono Room system and to ensure rights of all students, but it may take some time,’’ Nur added.
Nur was elected from the decently spearheaded quota reformists’ panel titled ‘Bangladesh Sadaron Chhatra Odhikar Sangrakkhan Parishad’. Turning down the allegation, DUCSU AGS Saddam Hossain told the Bangladesh Post, ‘There is no scope of showing non-cooperation, the DUCSU is performing well braving all difficulties and limitations. The main achievement is we have ensured peaceful co-existence for all students organizations, besides improving food quality in dormitories, solving paucity of transports and organizing many workshops, seminars, symposiums for student’s betterment,’’
‘‘There is no room for communal activities on DU campus, the Dhaka University is for progressive and democratic political practice only,’’ Saddam said alleging that communal groups like the Islami Chhatra Shibir are out to come back on DU campus riding on the shoulder of DUCSU VP Nurul Haque Nur. He also promised to bring the Dhaka University under automation system soon to eliminate student’s adversities.
Asif Talukder, cultural secretary of the DUCSU, said, “There exists a lot of dissatisfactions among students for not having the DUCSU for 28 years. So, it is not possible to change everything just in one year. But with the continuation of the union, it will be possible to make the Dhaka University a hundred per cent student-friendly institution,”
But most of the promises are yet to see the light of success with solutions to the problem of residential seats, eliminating the Gono Room and Guest Room culture, making the campus free from drugs and terrorism, increasing budget allocation on research, introducing teacher evaluation system and cancelling the evening courses and affiliation of seven colleges are yet to be seen.
The DUCSU leaders are busy in promoting themselves and mouthing fancy words rather than to work. Major problems like the Gano Room and Guest Room culture and lack of residential facilities of the university, hampering most the educational environment on the campus still exist’, said Nazmul Islam Fuad, a second year student of the Political Science department.
In the election on March 11 after 28 years, the pro-government student wing, the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) won 23 posts, including the GS post, while the VP and Social Service Secretary posts won from the panel of the Bangladesh General Student Rights Protection Council, a platform that led the quota reform movement last year.