Banning student politics on campus

Once student unions of the universities in Bangladesh used to be a window to express students' problems. But now student organisations, backed by political parties, are doing more harm than good. Extortion, tender manipulation, sexual harassment, crime and abuse of power in the name of student politics is now rampant. Universities should be a hub of free expression, but instead the voices of the students are being silenced. Anyone expressing different opinion is being attacked. The way such organisations are operating now is not helping any student. Most of the student organisations have no public welfare ideology. Rather, they are being run and controlled by political parties.

There is no reason to think that students will not be able to express their views in absence of student politics. General students can also hold demonstration if the need arises. Student union elections at universities and colleges without political influence can create constructive student leadership. It is true that today's students are tomorrow's leaders. Nevertheless, the main task of the students is to study. Everything else is secondary. A total ban is, therefore, cannot be the remedy to tackle this. But political parties must avoid using students as their political tools. So, what we need is a complete ban on student political organisations, which act as affiliates of the political parties.

Md. Zillur Rahaman,

Satish Sarkar Road,

Gandaria, Dhaka,

zrbbbp@gmail.com