Editorial
Clashes in Chittagong University
Could have been avoided with some prudence
The student-police clash at Chittagong University was most unwarranted. The violence, which erupted between the police and the agitating students, who were protesting the hike in tuition fees, appears to us a matter of administrative failure too. A large number of students and policemen have suffered injuries, apart from the fact that several vehicles were also damaged during the clash. Understandably, the situation came to such a violent state after the police intercepted a student procession in the campus.
We understand too that the students had been remonstrating for seven days against the fee hike, about which they had come to know only when they went to pay their monthly dues, before the matter turned violent last Monday. And this is what begs the question.
While one must condemn violence and destruction that the students indulged in, one is constrained to ask what the administration had done in response to the negative reaction of the students to the hike for as long as a week. One appreciates the fact that fee hike may be a justified step, whether or not in the rate it has been is another matter, as the grievance of the students against the increase is. But that should never have been allowed to precipitate into violence.
If the decision to increase the fees was taken at the Senate meeting, and there may have been cogent rationale for the Senate to do so, why were the students not informed about it well in advance of the decision coming into force? We wonder whether students' views merited consideration by the senate, they being a major stake holder too. If it did, was it not for the administration to convince the students of the rationale behind the increase during the eight days that they were trying to ventilate their objection?
On the contrary, it is our understanding that the students were given a short shrift, and there were attempts to put down their protests. Clearly, there has been a complete gap in communication between the teachers and the students, and the teachers have apparently deliberately failed to feel the pulse of their wards. We feel that the matter would not have come to this had the students been consulted before finalising the decision to increase the tuition fees, which in some cases have been enhanced by almost 90 percent.
In this regard we are also surprised at the role of the police, who failed to realise that in certain cases not taking action helps calm a situation down faster than going into precipitate action against the agitators. Policemen charging female students with makeshift batons cannot be a pleasant sight to a civilised person, and it is our hope that the university authorities would be more prudent in seeking the deployment of police inside the campus.
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