Former Chhatra League leader calls for DU VC’s resignation following history fiasco

Former Chhatra League general secretary Siddiqui Najmul Alam has demanded that the Vice-Chancellor of Dhaka University resign following the history goof-up in its foundation day souvenir.

In a video post on social networking site Facebook, Alam said that Dhaka University is the high seat of Bangladesh’s history and such a fiasco at this institution is unacceptable.

“Want his resignation, want his resignation, want his resignation”, he emphatically demanded.

On Friday, Dhaka University campus became the eye of a stormy protest arising out of an essay published in its Foundation Day souvenir.  The piece, authored by acting registrar Rezaur Rahman, curiously referred to Pakistan military strongman General Ziaur Rahman as the “first president of Bangladesh” and “a valiant freedom fighter”.

Severe protests throughout the day called for the resignation of the University’s Vice Chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique.

But the VC tried to duck the crisis by pointing out that since the piece was a byline piece, its author, acting registrar Rezaur Rahman, is primarily responsible for it and has accordingly been sacked.

However, this hardly seemed to pacify the former student leader who went on to call Rezaur a Jamaat sympathizer and tersely asked the VC to explain what made him such an “apple-pie” to the VC and demanded that nothing short of the resignation of the VC would be enough.

He urged fellow netizens not to post pictures of the controversial article as it would lead to more publicity.