Chhatra Shibir calls for reforming, not scrapping, campus politics

Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, has backed reforming campus politics rather than scrapping it altogether.

Speaking at a Chittagong University event on Saturday, its President Nurul Islam Saddam said such student programmes would not exist without party politics. 

"It wouldn't be right to do away with all of this," he said, adding universities should reform politics while keeping its core intact, much like treating a headache without cutting off the head.

Abdul Kader of the Student Against Discrimination had earlier claimed Shibir leader SM Farhad tried adding a campus politics ban to the July Uprising's nine-point charter, a demand later softened to banning "party-affiliated, subservient" student politics.

Saddam said universities should have their own code of conduct governing political activity, a proposal Chhatra Shibir has pitched to Jahangirnagar, Jagannath and Dhaka University administrations. 

He described campuses as a "common place of values" where student organisations present their ideology for students to accept or reject, with no one forced into rallies to serve any party's interests.

Opposing the "Gono room" and "guest room" culture, he said: "These must never be allowed to resume. Whoever tries, we must take collective action against them."

Asked whether subservient politics would mean elected representatives pushing their own party's agenda, Saddam said ideology would naturally be practised, "but it has to serve the campus's interest", adding no leader's posters or slogans should appear on campus.

Saddam also questioned why Chittagong University's housing crisis remained unresolved after decades, calling it "a disgrace" that a merit-admitted student cannot be guaranteed a hall seat. 

He accused the government of “deliberate neglect”, noting dozens of new universities had been built nationwide while Chittagong University's development lagged.