THE report that a University of Dhaka student was tortured by the activists of the Chhatra League makes it evident that neither the university nor law enforcers about sincere about bringing the perpetrators affiliated to the student front of the ruling Awami League to justice. The victim, a border of the Bijoy Ekattar Hall, says that hall unit BCL activists had confined him overnight and tortured him on allegations that he had connections with Islami Chhatra Shibir. The next morning on January 23, the provost put the victim in proctorial custody. The Chhatra League activists brushed aside allegations but acknowledged that they interrogated him to know more of Shibir activities on the campus. The provost implicitly takes side with the Chhatra League as he claims that the victim has connection with Shibir, but Chhatra League activists should not have beaten him. It is worrying that the hall administration approves of such ideological policing and takes no action against perpetrators even though the violence is a clear violation of the university disciplinary code.

The incident harks back to the killing of Abrar Fahad, a student of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, who was was tortured to death i the Sher-e-Bangla Hall by Chhatra League leaders in October 2019 reportedly over his critical view of an agreement between Bangladesh and India and his alleged connection with Shibir. The death shocked the nation and students across the country took to the streets in protest. The response of the Bijoy Ekattar Hall provost suggests that the university administration is not alarmed. In January 2021, aother border of the Bijoy Ekattor Hall was tortured in the guest room until he fell unconscious and he identified the perpetrators as students affiliated to the Chhatra League. Action taken in the case, if any, was not enough to prevent recurrence of BCL violence on the campus. The situation in other public universities is no different. In 2022, four committees were formed to investigate allegations of assault, sexual harassment and ‘ragging’ against Chhatra League leaders of the Bangladesh Agricultural University, but the investigations did not roll into action. In educational institutions, especially public universities, students are compelled to follow what the ruling party student leaders ask them to do in a ‘yes-man’ culture. The university authority’s inaction, therefore, allows such an undemocratic academic environment to continue.

It is high time that the university administration realised long-term consequences of such an undemocratic and violent academic environment on students and national educational development. The hall administration in this case and other educational institutions must ensure that perpetrators of such violence are brought to justice, irrespective of their party affiliation and political influence. The universities must also abandon their partisan policies and the ruling party needs to abandon its policy of treating students as their muscle power.