In Bangladesh politics, student politics is quite powerful. Politically associated students are closely linked to party politics, contributing considerably to political violence in the country while also often preparing for future political posts, creating a self-reinforcing loop combining violence and politics. Student politics in public universities are comparatively more vibrant than the other educational institutions. However, the student wing of the ruling party has generally been able to consolidate power on campuses over the past years. Students basically practice these power politics in dorms, university campuses along with general students. As a result, many cases are evident where the general students became victims.
It is frequently seen that the students who support the opposition party are not allowed to stay at the residential halls in pressure of the position party students’ wing of the hall. The practice of democratic values is being destroyed for this type of action. These students acquire hatred and revengeful nature from this life and have the tendency to practice these attitudes in their national life also.
Shahriar Zaman Shaon, one of the resilient youths from the University of Dhaka is working to create a safe dormitory for the general students with democratic and tolerant ideologies in the DU halls. He arranged numerous online and offline sessions with ruling political and non-political students in different halls. He tried to make students understand the drawbacks of power politics over the general students in every sphere of dorms. Even the founding father of our nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman never supported the power politics over general students. Shaon is relentlessly working to create democratic and tolerant values in the students with different case studies. Basic ideas about the importance of democratic values, Virtual seminars on spreading democratic values, Mediation in conflictual cases, Intellectual intervention while gossiping. Letting the targeted students attend ‘core workshop’ along with cooperative solutions is being addressed throughout his sessions.
A Dhaka University third-year student named Rafi, resident at Bijoy Ekattor Hall, was aimlessly moving from door to door for a shelter though the scenario should not be alike. Rafi got his legal seat allotted by Provost at the outset of January 2020. He was barred from staying in his allotted room as one of the roommates was a central posted leader of one of the student political wings. Rafi failed to mediate the case as he was not politically involved. He was also unable to live in a mess outside the campus area as he was financially incapable.
Shaon continued talking with the seniors and convincing them about the matter. The process was not held in a day. However, though Shaon also belongs to a Student political group, he was continuously trying to negotiate with his fellow friends who are politically active in the hall that every one of us should have the right to stay in our legal seat of the residential hall. Then he arranged online seminars for second-year students along with politically affiliated students to let them understand the meaning and practices of democracy. He was intervening intellectually that tolerance and democracy are our constitutional commitment and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman also practiced these in his politics. Negotiating with the political students about the tolerant ideology wasn’t easy as the maximum of Shaon’s works and practices are contradictory to the culture of the current hall politics. He somehow made the political students understand that as Rafi is legally allocated to the seat, he has the legal right to stay in that room. If Rafi didn’t get access then it will be an injustice towards him. As political students, the aim of the students should practice democratic values and stand for the general students’ rights. Shaon then requested them to be more tolerant and sympathetic towards the issue. He then took the example of Bangabandhu, his ideology regarding tolerance. Finally, Shaon succeeded to get Rafi a legal seat in the dorm. However, the path of Shaon for helping this student wasn’t smooth. While negotiating with the brothers, one has rebuked and threatened him. He said Shaon that though Shaon is trying to help the general students this is going against the current culture of hall politics. However, he somehow tackled the situation.
Moreover, generally in the residential hall canteen owners always claim that some students from influential political parties continuously take their food without paying the bill. Sometimes this rate rose very high that the canteen owners cannot ensure the standard quality food with minimum price. The general students have to bear the consequence. After the consciousness-building process with the leaders and politically active students in the hall, the ratio of malpractice in the canteen started to decrease. Shahriar has some informal sitting where they have discussed the moral values and legal issues about this and we have convinced them that if we can stop malpractice, the standard of food will rise. He communicated with the manager of Surjosen hall 1 month earlier when he complained about severe malpractice of eating without paying. He claimed that more than 50 students eat without payment. We had talked with different residential halls’ vice president and assistant vice president of DUCSU. They have also assured us that they will work in this case to eliminate the malpractice. The vice president of Bijoy 71 hall Sajibur Rahman Sajeeb has helped them with the consensus-building process and set some legal issues about this malpractice in this hall. The process is ongoing and Shaon and his team are hopeful about creating a positive change in the university with the help of practicing peace, tolerance, and democratic ideology.