DUTA
A young citizen, On e-mail
When I read the news that Dhaka University Teachers' Association (DUTA) will be abstaining from taking classes, I thought, there must have been something that went very wrong at DU. I was perplexed, not surprised, as this is nothing new if we look back to the recent past. Yet again, thinking of the imposed emergency situation by the military backed caretaker government, I went on reading to know as to what the actual reasons of their protest are. I was short of becoming astonished to grasp that the strike was in protest of arrest of Sheikh Hasina, and "maltreatment" to Khaleda Zia.As part of the protest, some DU teachers in different faculties wore black badges. Newspaper report says classes were not held in the Arts faculty, whereas some departments in the Curzon Hall area were open for classes. These days, we all know, from the free press and widespread availability of information from many sources that there have been some serious allegations against many of our most popular political leaders. If a person, be he or she a former prime minister, is not guilty of corruption, let it be cleared by the judicial system. Wearing black badges and abstaining from taking classes, like ordinary political activists, by a large body of DU teachers not only send a wrong message to the general students but are also a shame for the nation. Students have the right to get a fair academic environment, which can only be achieved if the teachers abstain themselves from party politics, rather than from the classes. By this act of self destruction, the DUTA has tarnished the already dilapidated image of the university and its teachers to its very end. Snapping political affiliations of the teachers and students in all the universities could be one of the many ways to help these educational institutions do what they are supposed to.
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