The coordinating committee of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement at Sylhet Agricultural University (SAU) has been declared unwanted by some general students, who have labelled it as “fascist and self-serving.”
On Thursday over a hundred students declared the committee persona-non-grata on their Facebook profiles.
The committee, consisting of eight members, was announced on August 4 and since then students have claimed that it is a self-proclaimed committee with no real connection to the general student body or the anti-discrimination student movement.
Azizul Haque, the chief coordinator of the committee and a student from the 2018-19 academic batch of the Faculty of Agriculture, defended the matter saying that students need to understand who is behind these claims and provocations.
Just like in other parts of the country, the same authoritarian elements that were prevalent here are now playing with the sentiments of the students.
He also said, “Many leaders and supporters of the Chhatra League are also involved. These autocrats are trying to bring back the chaos of the previous VC, Professor Dr Md Jamal Uddin Bhuiyan, to our campus, and are attempting to discredit our committee. I urge the students to be cautious and not act impulsively based on anyone’s instigation.”
However, Mahfuzah Akter, a student from the 2019-20 academic batch of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and a member of the committee, said a few days before the government’s fall, a link was circulated in a university group for coordinator nominations.
Based on that, she submitted her name, but after the movement concluded, a list of coordinators was published. Many friends informed her that some on the list are involved in politics. Hence, she resigned on August 7, she said.
Sohel Ahmed Ayon, a student from the 2019-20 batch of the Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, said despite the appearance of a self-proclaimed coordinating committee, there was no noticeable activity from any coordinator during the movement on campus.
Hence, students view their current actions as serving personal interests, advancing their own political agendas, and being purposefully misleading, he said.
On the other hand, the SAU authority has imposed a ban on all kinds of political activities by students, teachers, officials and employees.
The university administration announced the decision through an office order on Thursday night.
