How long will BCL be above the law?

It's highly disturbing to see administrators of public universities being constantly cowed into serving the parochial interests of the ruling party's student wing. In the latest example of such power abuse, the president of the Comilla University unit of Bangladesh Chhatra League reportedly walked into the vice-chancellor's office on Tuesday, and demanded that BCL leaders be recruited in different posts at the university. This isn't the first time that he showed such audacity, however. According to a report, in March, the BCL unit president (who somehow held on to this post for 15 years, despite not being a student anymore and belonging to an expired committee) and his team went to the then newly-appointed VC with the same demands and more. At one point, they even blocked the VC's car to force him to meet their demands.

As regards Tuesday's incident, one newspaper narrated how – when the VC stressed that only those who acquire the necessary scores in exams will be given jobs at CoU – the BCL unit president challenged him, asking whether members of his group would still be denied jobs if the prime minister spoke for them. Although the VC stood his ground and expressed his doubt that the PM would ask for something that went against the rules, the manner in which his authority was challenged, in front of visitors and teachers no less, is truly shocking.

One may recall that in January 2021, a group of 25-30 BCL men had confined the Rajshahi University VC, two pro-VCs and the proctor in the VC's residence, demanding that they be given jobs at the university. This kind of power abuse to secure jobs is just one in a long list of crimes and irregularities being committed by those carrying the seal of the BCL, to little response from its central leadership. The exemptions they continue to enjoy, both at their universities and outside, are mind-boggling. One cannot help but ask: How is it that the BCL can coerce and even hold hostage those in the highest positions of a university? What makes them feel so emboldened? Why do the administration and the ruling party continue to allow this? If the VCs are so helpless in front of the BCL, one shudders to think of the vulnerability of general students.

The BCL, just like any organisation, must be made accountable to the law of the land. We urge the BCL central leadership to establish discipline and a reliable accountability mechanism within their organisational set-up to respond to such undesirable incidents. But more importantly, the authorities, both at the public universities and colleges and at the state level, must realise the gravity of the danger that their continued inaction/tolerance poses to the future of the education sector. It is high time they stopped pandering to the whims of BCL cadres so that universities run with public money can serve the public.