Editorial
BCL criminality now down to arson!
Will the govt and party take grip of the deteriorating scenario?
THE news that BCL activities set a CU teachers' bus on fire to press home their five-point demand is alarming, to say the least. The BCL appears to have decided to clinch everything through applying brute force even if it comes to their own teachers.
What haven't they done in the last 15 months? Seats at the university dorms have been turned into their private preserve; tenders are manipulated; and, to cap it all, they are committing all other types of offences with complete impunity. Obviously, the list will be further lengthened if we consider the BCL's internecine feuds that often lead to bloodletting. Again, killing each other does not make their activities less repugnant to the academic atmosphere.
The sudden and violent outbursts of BCL rowdism are often triggered by the authorities' failing to meet their unlawful demands. In the latest instance, the VC of Chittagong University had reportedly turned down their proposal of setting up some stalls on the campus on Pahela Baishakh to do business. Infuriated by the VC's decision, they started a movement to oust him! Now, the question is who should run the university? The BCL goons or the VC? Or indeed do the education ministry, the government or the ruling party feel any pinch of responsibility?
One cannot but keep on asking who is actually responsible, apart from the BCL activists, for the situation now prevailing in the academic arena? The ruling AL's stand is manifestly not to go beyond issuing sermonic statements. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's exhortations and warnings have produced no results; on the contrary, these have only helped increase the sense of impunity. The BCL could overlook what is being said from the top and continues, rather blissfully, to indulge in criminal activities.
It is clear that the government is totally oblivious of the BCL's nefarious activities which now include a crime like arson. The law enforcers are doing nothing, or apparently not asked to do anything, to curb the illegal activities. Such activities have already started wreaking havoc on the government's credibility and effectiveness. It is not an overstatement to say that when the ruling party fails to control its cadres, particularly those involved in crime, a general surge in the crime situation is likely to follow. And the result can be free-for-all criminalisation of society with the government pushed to a point of looking on helplessly. What a disaster that will be! But it is our firm belief that if the government and ruling party are serious and determined to contain BCL's predatory activities, they surely can.
What haven't they done in the last 15 months? Seats at the university dorms have been turned into their private preserve; tenders are manipulated; and, to cap it all, they are committing all other types of offences with complete impunity. Obviously, the list will be further lengthened if we consider the BCL's internecine feuds that often lead to bloodletting. Again, killing each other does not make their activities less repugnant to the academic atmosphere.
The sudden and violent outbursts of BCL rowdism are often triggered by the authorities' failing to meet their unlawful demands. In the latest instance, the VC of Chittagong University had reportedly turned down their proposal of setting up some stalls on the campus on Pahela Baishakh to do business. Infuriated by the VC's decision, they started a movement to oust him! Now, the question is who should run the university? The BCL goons or the VC? Or indeed do the education ministry, the government or the ruling party feel any pinch of responsibility?
One cannot but keep on asking who is actually responsible, apart from the BCL activists, for the situation now prevailing in the academic arena? The ruling AL's stand is manifestly not to go beyond issuing sermonic statements. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's exhortations and warnings have produced no results; on the contrary, these have only helped increase the sense of impunity. The BCL could overlook what is being said from the top and continues, rather blissfully, to indulge in criminal activities.
It is clear that the government is totally oblivious of the BCL's nefarious activities which now include a crime like arson. The law enforcers are doing nothing, or apparently not asked to do anything, to curb the illegal activities. Such activities have already started wreaking havoc on the government's credibility and effectiveness. It is not an overstatement to say that when the ruling party fails to control its cadres, particularly those involved in crime, a general surge in the crime situation is likely to follow. And the result can be free-for-all criminalisation of society with the government pushed to a point of looking on helplessly. What a disaster that will be! But it is our firm belief that if the government and ruling party are serious and determined to contain BCL's predatory activities, they surely can.
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