Jinnah's photo at DUCSU insult to language, independence movements: Chhatra Dal

Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal has condemned and protested the display of a controversial 1948 photograph of Muhammad Ali Jinnah at the Dhaka University Central Students' Union (DUCSU) museum. The organisation believes this is a direct insult to the heritage of the language and independence movements.

In a notification signed by Chhatra Dal Office Secretary Md Jahangir Alam on Monday, August 14, organisation President Rakibul Islam and General Secretary Nasir Uddin Nasir stated that on March 21, 1948, standing at the then Race Course Ground (now Suhrawardy Udyan), Muhammad Ali Jinnah had declared, "Urdu, and only Urdu, shall be the state language of Pakistan." The fearless students of Dhaka University at the time immediately raised their voices in protest against Jinnah's extremely arrogant statement, which later laid the foundation for our bloody Language Movement and the Great Liberation War. Displaying the portrait of that controversial leader at the DUCSU museum, a students' council that was the cradle of Bengal's self-determination movement, is a direct insult to the heritage of the language and independence movements.

Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal alleged that the current DUCSU leadership has completely failed to resolve the accommodation crisis of regular students, secure their mandatory rights and create a proper environment for education. Paying no heed to the legitimate interests of students, they have turned the council into a tool for implementing their specific party and ideological agenda. From the despicable attempt to rename Madhur Canteen to 'Ishrat Manjil' to the installation of Jinnah's controversial portrait in the DUCSU museum, these series of actions prove that this Shibir-controlled DUCSU is sacrificing the mass aspirations of students and the university's liberating spirit, expressing its covert affection for the defeated forces of 1971 and its love for Pakistan.

In the notification, the Chhatra Dal president and general secretary said the portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who opposed the Bengali language, must be removed immediately from the DUCSU museum. DUCSU must stop being used as a place for practising the ideology of any particular political group. All attempts to distort every historical monument and spirit of Dhaka University, including the historic Madhur Canteen, will be resisted.

They further said that just as the university's student community roared against Jinnah's arrogant statement in 1948, Chhatra Dal, together with general students, will build united resistance against any evil force to protect the university's progressive spirit, history and heritage.