DUCSU election a must for future leadership

President and Chancellor of Dhaka University (DU) Abdul Hamid said it is necessary to hold the overdue election to Dhaka University Central Students' Union (DUCSU) for future leadership. He said earlier students did politics for the welfare of the country. But now they do politics to uphold their image and ideology. In some cases, those who have no studentship are at the leadership of the student politics.  As a result, faith, respect and support of the ordinary people to the student politics are decreasing gradually.

The President said this while addressing the 50^th convocation of Dhaka University held on Saturday. While talking about the types of current student leaders, at present most of the student leaders are 45 to 50 years old. They cannot adjust to the new students. So leaders should come out from DUCSU election. The student politics should be dragged to the right way. Otherwise, the country will turn into a leaderless one in future.

This call from the President is quite time befitting. His speech has portrayed the real picture of the student politics. Country’s leading educational institution Dhaka University is well known as “Oxford of the East”. Language movement in 1952, mass uprising in 1969, from the gaining of Independence in 1971 to movement against the autocratic rule in 1990, democratic and freedom movement were led by the brilliant students of the university. Apparently, most of the movements were led by the DUCSU leaders.

But DUCSU election is not being held in the university for two decades. The DUCSU saw the last election in 1990. Evidently, the DUCSU has become ineffective as no election was held for long time due to the lack of goodwill from the authorities of the university and its student fronts. Now the DUCSU is way to lose its own legacy. The main reason behind not holding the DUCSU election is the internal conflict between Chhatra League and Chhatra Dal, the two major student wings in the country. Besides, the university administration has failed to ensure coexistence of different student fronts in the campus and halls.

Unrest exists due to conflicting student politics in the universities. Most of the student fronts are working for their party and individual interests leaving the national interests. Student politics are now not for the welfare of the students. Many of the student leaders are becoming richer overnight through unfair means. There are allegations of irregularities and establishing dominion in the campus against the student wing of the ruling party.

At present the country is advancing economically. So the students should be competent through practicing good politics in order to lead Bangladesh in future. The election should hold not only in DUCSU but also in Students' Union of all educational institutions. Former DUCSU leaders think if sound tracks are restored in the student politics through the DUCSU election, then national politics will be benefitted. As a result, honest, competent and talented leaders will emerge from the political parties.

risingbd/DHAKA/March 5, 2017/Ali Nowsher/Amirul