Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) recently witnessed Oikkoboddho Shikkharthi Jote (or United Students’ Alliance), backed by Jamaat-e-Islami student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS), winning 23 out of the 28 posts, securing all three top positions—Vice President (VP), General Secretary (GS), and Assistant General Secretary (AGS) and marking Shibir’s historic win for the first time in Dhaka University since 1971.

With the resurgence of Islamist politics in Bangladesh since the fall of Sheikh Hasina, and Dhaka University’s own significance as being the barometers of political climate in the country earning the popular name of Bangladesh’s ‘second parliament’, the DUCSU mandate needs careful attention.

Dhaka University has been the harbinger of major political movements in the country and the intellectual hub of resistance voices—be it Bengalis’ undying zeal for protecting their mother tongue in the 1952 Bengali Language Movement, the demand for East Pakistan’s political and economic autonomy in the 1966 Autonomy Movement or protest against Pakistan’s military regime in 1969 uprising. It is precisely for this reason that the Pakistani military regime, which loathed Dhaka University, launched Operation Searchlight in 1971, starting its brutal military crackdown first in the university campus. This ignited the Liberation War, resulting in the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent nation.

Post-1971, Dhaka University maintained its unique hold as the bastion of Bangladesh’s intellectual discourse rooted in progressive, secular and democratic values. Its vibrant political activism has given many influential future leaders to the country thereby, shaping Bangladesh’s national political landscape. Dhaka University students’ role in 1990 anti-Ershad Movement has also been pivotal in bringing an end to decades of military rule in Bangladesh, paving the way for the restoration of democracy and a civilian national government.

When it comes to Islamist politics, especially Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islamic Chhatra Shibir (ICS), Dhaka........

© News18