THE Chhatra League, the student wing of the Awami League, having been an active party, along with its other fellow fronts of the political party, to the murders and attacks that took place, especially, during the July-August protests and the consequent uprising and, generally, the misdeeds that it has committed all these years, has been banned. The home affairs ministry on October 23 issued an official notification to this end, ordering the ban with an immediate effect in keeping with the Anti-Terrorism Act 2009. The Chhatra League as an organisation under the umbrella of the Awami League and other fronts of the political party as well as leaders and activists in the organisation should, no doubt, face trial collectively and individually for their misdeeds. The crimes that the organisation and its activists have committed over the years include murders, rape, sexual harassment, torture, the repression of students in educational institutions, the control of seat allotment in halls of residence and hostels, running tender cartels, fighting over supremacy on the campus, extortion, mugging, etc. But the imposition of a ban on the organisation by an executive order is a different issue that mostly overlooks the need for the organisation鈥檚 social exclusion in society and trial as a rogue organisation.
The Chhatra League as a political idea needs to be handled politically as it should be the norm in a sound political culture. The interim government, installed on August 8 after the overthrow of the Awami League government on August 5, has ordered the ban on the Chhatra League under pressure from the student protesters, who, of course, have made enormous contribution braving all odds to the deposal of the Awami League, which had governed the country for more than 15 years at a stretch in an authoritarian manner. But, this is in no way a democratic step as the Awami League on August 1 banned the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and its fronts, including Islami Chhatra Shibir, by an executive order without trying its institutional crimes. This was, and is, no solution. The interim government overturned the ban on Jamaat and its fronts on August 28. If the government wants to ban the Chhatra League as an organisation, it should also ban Jamaat and its fronts which are accused to have committed crimes of a far graver intensity against humanity during Bangladesh鈥檚 liberation war in 1971. The Awami League鈥檚 ban on Jamaat and its fronts was a political trickery and the action at hand on the Chhatra League has been a selective step on part of the government. And, both are unacceptable.
A major way to deal with such rogue organisations, whether the Chhatra League or the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and its fronts, is to try them individually and collectively for the crimes that they have committed. Whenever any such organisations are involved in genocide of a sort, they should also be held to account for the command responsibility of the ranking people in the organisation and punishment should be meted out accordingly.
