STAR DIARY

The Dark Sights of Suhrawardy Udyan

Last Friday, I met my university friends at Suhrawardy Udyan after almost a decade. During our days at University of Dhaka, we rarely missed a single day to hang out at that place. Sometimes we used to gather there for study purposes, other times just as a pastime. But, the recent visit made me very upset. What I found is that, the prior environment of Suhrawardy uddyan has entirely changed. It can easily be said that it has become a sanctuary for the vagabonds, drug addicts, hawkers or even prostitutes. I have read several times in different news media that my favourite uddyan is becoming an unsafe place for the common people. But, observing it with my own eyes has depressed me. I never thought this great place; our historical 'Race Course Maidan' would become such an insecure place. Like others, I have heard that government is very careful about such issues, but I haven't found anything noticeable. We all are hoping that the prior sights of our beloved Suhrawardy Uddyan will be regained soon and people will have a nice and secure place to visit. 

Sabiha Akter Rony
Rajbari, Faridpur

Check The Facts!
A couple of days ago, a certain late night talk show on Desh TV caught my attention. The subject was bringing student politics to private universities, which has been the talk of the town for a couple of days now. The panelists included the former president of Chhatra Union. During the conversation, he brought up how the protest against VAT on Education was led by his party. This is where I begged to defer. The VAT movement was first established by the students of University of Liberal Arts, Bangladesh (ULAB). It was led by students who don't come from any political background. After a couple of days of protesting, the movement spread onto other private universities. As far as I know, even after that, there was no political involvement. So my request would be to the former president to get his facts checked before making such statements. Taking credit for something which wasn't theirs is not expected from our future leaders.

Nasib Ahsan
ULAB, Dhaka