Bangabandhu’s birth anniversary: Chhatra League blames DU law faculty for non-cooperation

Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling Awami League, has alleged that they were denied permission to hold programmes marking the birth anniversary of the nation’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on Saturday at Dhaka University’s Faculty of Law.

The student activists have claimed that they had planned to organise special prayers and distribute food among the poor on that day but were not allowed to enter the faculty.

Later, they held a programme on a sidewalk outside the faculty.

The DU law faculty authorities, however, brushed off the allegation and claimed that Chhatra League did not seek permission in writing.

“Bangabandhu studied in this faculty but we never saw the authorities organising any programme marking his significance,” said Shariful Hasan Shubho, president of Chhatra League’s DU law faculty unit.

“The authorities do not cooperate with us whenever we come up with an initiative,” said Shubho, a master’s student. “This faculty should have been at the heart of Bangabandhu’s birthday celebrations.”

Dr Naima Huq, chairman at the Department of Law, said her department did not organise any programme on Bangabandhu’s birthday. “Several other programmes were held at the university but I could not attend any of them because I was sick.”

Shubho has claimed that the dean of the faculty asked him to pay a fee of Tk 5,000 and submit a written application when he personally approached him for the event on Mar 11.

“It was difficult for us to raise Tk 5,000 for the venue. So we had no option but to use the footpath,” said the Chhatra League leader.

Prof Md Rahmat Ullah, dean of the Faculty of Law, said the students neither visited him nor filed any application seeking permission for the venue.

The Chhatra League leaders further said the authorities turned down a proposal on Mar 6 when they sought to hold a programme seeking the implementation of 13-point proposals and transfer of documents tied to the days Bangabandhu had spent as a student of law.

Bangabandhu tops the list of legendary Bangalees who studied at Dhaka University, the country’s largest university.

The erstwhile authorities of Dhaka University expelled Bangabandhu in 1949 when he led a movement to establish rights of fourth-grade workers of the university. Bangabandhu was an honours student of law in his second year at the time.

He refused to pay Rs 15 and sign a bond to win back his studentship, an offer by the university authorities.

In a syndicate meeting held in 2010, Dhaka University scrapped the expulsion order against him.