PM Hasina invites DUCSU elected leaders

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has invited the newly elected leaders of Dhaka University Central Students’ Union or DUCSU and hall unions to the Ganabhaban. They are scheduled to meet Hasina next Saturday as the university authorities were on Thursday preparing for their inauguration ceremony amid protests for fresh polls. The meeting will take place at 4pm, according to the government head’s schedule.

Nurul Haque Nur, the newly elected DUCSU president from a panel of students who led the movement for reforms to quota system in government jobs, told he would go to the Ganabhaban to meet Hasina. Nur said “She is the prime minister of us all. It is our duty to go there as she has invited all the winners of DUCSU and hall union polls.”

The other winner from the panel, DUCSU Social Service Secretary Akhtar Hossain, will be with Nur, the new VP said. DUCSU’s newly elected General Secretary Golam Rabbani holds the same post in the ruling Awami League’s student affiliation Bangladesh Chhatra League.

All the 23 winners from the BCL’s panel in the central union and the others in the hall unions will meet the prime minister on Saturday, Rabbani told media.

The date for their inauguration has not been finalised yet, Vice-Chancellor Md Akhtaruzzaman said on Thursday. “We are preparing for the inauguration after discussions with the elected student leaders. We are not hurrying, but will organise it in the shortest possible time,” he said.

The VP on Wednesday vowed to continue protests against ‘irregularities and rigging’ in the election. He demanded fresh DUCSU polls by Mar 31 while leaders of panels who boycotted the Mar 11 election gave the authorities a three-day ultimatum to announce a schedule of fresh polls threatening tough protests.

VC Akhtaruzzaman rejected their demands and said he has no jurisdiction to show “disrespect to the tireless efforts by all” who worked for the elections.

Meanwhile, a hunger strike by some students demanding fresh polls after resignation of those who oversaw the Mar 11 elections continued for the third day on Thursday. One of them was hospitalised on Wednesday.

Pro-VC Muhammad Samad said a proctorial team was taking care of the striking students. “But our message is very clear – there is no scope of fresh DUCSU polls,” he added.