Boycott withdrawn from exams, not classes

The quota reform demonstrators yesterday postponed their decision of boycotting examinations at all universities and colleges across the country considering Ramadan and the prospect of “session jams” the strike may cause. 

Nurul Haque Nur, joint convener of Bangladesh Sadharan Chhatra Odhikar Sangrakkhan Parishad, which leads the movement, made the announcement at a press conference on Dhaka University campus. “We postponed the decision (of exam boycott) for an indefinite period… but the class boycott would continue,” he said.

The platform started an indefinite boycott of classes and examinations at all universities and colleges on May 14 after the government failed to issue a gazette notification on the prime minister's April 11 announcement of quota abolition in government jobs. It gave an ultimatum for publication of the notification by May 13.

Meanwhile, referring to the incident of giving show cause notices to 25 students of Kabi Sufia Kamal Hall, the protest leader said the DU vice-chancellor and the proctor easily fall prey to rumours.

The university authorities had expelled BCL's Sufia Kamal Hall unit president Iffat Jahan Isha without scrutinising the April 10 night incident of “severing the tendons” of a student of the hall and said they found her guilty. “But later they made a U-turn and gave contradictory speeches to the journalists,” he added.

Isha had been expelled from the university and Bangladesh Chhatra League, but both withdrew their orders later.

The platform convener, Hasan Al Mamun, said the protestors of different colleges and universities were being intimidated and threatened with torture and eviction from their hall. He also alleged that a “group of overenthusiastic people and conspirators” is doing these to put the government in an uncomfortable situation.

They condemned such incidents.

The platform also urged the DU authorities not to harass the quota reform demonstrators in the name of serving show-cause notices.

The DU authorities on Thursday issued show-cause notices to 25 students of Sufia Kamal hall as the authorities “found” their involvement in assaulting BLC leader Isha and in spreading rumours on Facebook during the incident.

In April, students of public and private universities across the country took to the streets demanding reform in the quota system. The protesters blocked key points in the capital and roads and highways elsewhere.

At present, 56 percent of government jobs are reserved for candidates from various quotas, while the remaining 44 percent draw applications from the merit list.

Of the 56 percent, 30 percent are kept for freedom fighters' children and grandchildren, 10 percent for women, 10 percent for people of districts lagging behind, five percent for members of indigenous communities, and one percent for physically-challenged people.

In the wake of the protests, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declared the abolition of quotas on April 11, during a parliamentary session.