The gruesome torture and killing of Buet student Abrar Fahad on the night of October 6, inside the institute's Sher-e-Bangla Hall, always leant the impression of being unlike any other instance of violence perpetrated by the Bangladesh Chhatra League over the last ten years. Perhaps it was Abrar's intelligence and eloquence, his independent mind, the dream he was so capably chasing at the country's premier institute of learning, that made it so. Or it may have been the incredulous details of what went on that night, the telling CCTV footage that pieced together a story that would otherwise have been unthinkable. Only later did we learn it was in fact all too common, if not always with such tragic consequences.

It may have been the sheer mindlessness of it all - picking on a fellow student for a Facebook status that sought to advocate the national interest, only from a different point of view, sounds

Petty even by Chhatra League standards. Or it may just be the advent of 24-hour news and 24/7 social media, all of which served to make news of the murder go viral within hours. Whatever it may be, the incident carried a distinct Before/After feel to it, that has gained further credence with the reaction from different quarters that have piled up over the course of the last 10 days. After two days off to allow for the institute's entrance exams, on October 15, protesting BUET students were centre-stage again, as they announced a withdrawal of their 'campus protest', i.e. laying siege to the campus grounds to put forth their demands.

The withdrawal came in light of the university authorities having accepted most of their demands. They, however, also announced they would be boycotting all academic activities until the killers are expelled from the university (they are only suspended as of now) and law enforcers submit the chargesheet in the Abrar murder case.

Earlier, in a series of five notices signed by acting Registrar Dr Md Saidur Rahman, Buet announced a ban on organisational politics, a drive against illegal occupants at residential halls and closure of offices of student organisations on the campus.

The university also announced it would be introducing a web portal for students to lodge complaints about ragging - sort of similar to the page that was opened in the aftermath of the Abrar killing, but then as the complaints started stacking up, abruptly closed. The Buet authorities also said the students accused in the Abrar murder case would be expelled once the chargesheet is submitted in the case, which could happen by the first week of Novemeber, according to police. .

The institution also pledged to bear the expenses of legal proceedings stemming from the murder case, and to bring every floor of its halls of residence under round-the-clock CCTV surveillance.

The notices were issued a day after Buet Vice Chancellor (VC) Prof Saiful Islam disclosed the decision at a discussion meeting with protesting students. "I am banning student politics at Buet as per my power," the VC, who himself faced some heat in the days following the killing, had declared on October 11. Director of Students' Welfare (DSW) Prof Mizanur Rahman was also present during the discussion.

The VC declared that from now onwards, no Buet teachers, including himself, would join any political program irrespective of whichever party may be behind it. On October 9, the Buet Teachers' Association decided to ban teacher politics at the university. But is a blanket ban on student politics that fails to address the corps issues really any solution?

Whither student politics?

The problem needs to be distilled to its essence: there is nothing wrong with student politics per se. As a matter of fact, it can be essential to students' and new jobseekers' welfare, when it is waged in the students' interest. We have the proud example of the quota reform movement, that drew the nation's attention to an important issue that almost everyone else was happy to ignore. The end result may have been scuppered in relation to their original intentions, but their cause was just, and the movement's leaders can always be proud of the work they did on its behalf.

The problem with student politics begins, where its agenda actually stops reflecting students' interests, and starts venturing into national politics. Something that happened in Bangladesh long ago, as the national parties started feeding 'student fronts' at educational institutes around the country, mainly in the public universities. Given the poor custodians our parties have demonstrably been of the national body politic in general, and democracy in particular since its advent in 1991, it should perhaps come as no surprise, what they have reduced our established student-run political organisations into: mere repositories of muscle power, a form of political capital that still retains value in backward polities such as ours.

Writing in these pages last year, Wafiur Rahman drew on the example of the dreaded National Students Federation (NSF) from the Pakistan era, created by Ayub Khan and his East Pakistani representative and governor Monaem Khan to do their dirty work against the protesting students in Dhaka University. "It was sponsored by the government and served government purposes. Its function was mainly to counter general people. Leaders and members of this organization under the protection of administration used to involve themselves with corrupt, anti-social and criminal activities to fulfill self and group interests." Rings a bell?

Nearly half a century later, we can see a repeat of history where the ruling party's student wing, the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), is strong-arming its way into intimidating whatever anti-government sentiment surfaces every now and then, and thereby consolidating their own position. After a ten-year unbroken spell in power for their mothership, the ruling Awami League, things have taken an uglier turn recently as BCL leaders and activists flout their power and look to draw benefit from every situation. Last year they resorted to regularly dispersing the peacefully-protesting quota reformers in a violent way. Toriqul Islam, a master's student and convenor of the reform movement in Rajshahi University, had two bones of his right leg broken, eight stitches to his head and bruises all over his body. Worse, a live video of him being beaten up by BCL workers was circulated on social media. One of the BCL men, Abdullah Al Mamun, pounded his back and legs non-stop with a hammer, a technique that would seem to have been repeated in the Abrar killing, only the weapon used was a cricket stump.

The mindlessness of the violence they often resort to raises questions of its own.

Driving the madness

Such anarchy among the BCL cadres seems to reflect a state of repressed anger and frustration among the workers, according to many high-level party insiders, wishing to remain anonymous.

One such insider, a top-level leader of BCL's Kalabagan Thana unit, told Dhaka Courier last year that it is used as an incentive to lure budding BCL position-aspirants. Many such aspirants conduct such violence to come into the limelight and attention of the party's leaders, under the image of "a loyal party worker", albeit a violent one.

They are usually among the low-tier post-aspirants, who do not calculate their moves. They blindly follow what their "local Boro Bhais, or elder brothers, tell them to do". He says they are usually motivated by power and money. Such acts will make them look stronger in front of the general people, he said, and people would start to fear him, similar to a gangster. With such a false sense of bravado, that person will go on to participate in many illegitimate ways to climb the ladder of success and money.

"If you see the post-assault interview on Facebook of Rajshahi's Abdullah Al Mamun, or Haturi Mamun, as he used a hammer to break Toriqul's legs, you will find that he is non-repentant of his actions and claims that he had heard Toriqul disrespecting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, from someone else, and on the basis of that, he did what he thought was right. But everyone knows what his ulterior motives were. He is a position-holder of BCL at Rajshahi University. He thinks it would help him to gain a better position ahead of the general elections."

Another reason why the top BCL leaders order the workers to do this is to come under "the good graces of the party's central leaders," said another high-ranking individual of Lalbag Thana Chhatra League. IF those leaders are impressed by his/her acts of loyalty, they can recommend their names while a new committee is formed.

Once that committee is formed, he said, and if their names come up, then the sky's the limit. Everybody knows that the city units of BCL are as powerful as the law enforcement agencies. They hold pseudo-influence over everything, from infrastructure development to private employments - becoming a BCL leader is as good as a shadow MP.

Untie the knot

It is clear that the BCL can no more ensure the safeguarding of the general students. They are carrying on their own vicious agendas in their party's interests, as well as their own personal and vested interests. Their main function now is to intimidate and silence whoever it is they consider as opposition.

And to be sure, nobody believes things would have been any different with say the Chhatra Dal, student front of the opposition BNP, if their parent organisation had been in a position to enjoy a decade in power. What it implies is that the way to arrive at a healthy form of student politics is not to ban it altogether, but rather to devise some way to conceptualise student politics as it was meant to be, rather than what the particular history of Bangladesh and its birth ordained it to be. Part of the proud tradition in our student politics is the lead they have always taken on issues of national import- from the Language Movement to the dawning of democracy. Now they have to be persuaded to pare back their visions and ambitions, from the national stage - where corruption and politics have become intertwined, and no great cause like liberating a nation or overthrowing a military ruler beckons- to the local campus. Where the citizens of tomorrow are made.

For that, the way forward is to untie the Gordian knot that ties each student-level political organisation to its parent at the national stage. As long as they exist in this format, no new movement is able to establish itself in any sustainable way. The quota reformists faced too many obstacles from the ruling party-backed Chhatra League to establish themselves as a permanent platform (their single-issue based agenda could have evolved), but they can serve as a starting point for the way they were able to organise themselves across different institutions spread throughout the country and bring their voice to bear on the national stage. Student leaders opined that there could be youth fronts having countrywide network to include young generation, beyond the influence of the main national political parties. This would supplement strength to party structure. This would also create openings for the youths to be involved and learn politics from an early age.

Additionally, they believe that all educational institutions should be instructed to arrange for elections regularly free from influence of national political parties to have democratically elected student leadership. The elected student representatives will take decisions, prepare work programme and arrange implementation with consent of students. This way they would develop mentality and skill of a responsible pro-people leader. Students are the future of our nation. It is our responsibility to ensure that they can prepare themselves to build an ideal homeland.