Jinnah’s photos in DUCSU archive, no glorious photo of Bangabandhu

Three photos of Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah have found place in the newly renovated and relaunched archive of Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU), but no glorious photo of the leader of Bangladesh’s independence struggle Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman has been kept.

The renovated archive on the ground floor of the DUCSU building was inaugurated by DUCSU’s Liberation War and Mass Movement Affairs Secretary Fatima Tasnim Juma on Sunday (September 13) afternoon. DUCSU VP Sadiq Kayem, GS SM Farhad and other leaders were present at that time.

Visiting the archive it is seen that photos of significant events and persons of various times starting from the year of establishment of Dhaka University in 1921 to the July uprising of 2024, subsequent DUCSU election and the killing of Inquilab Manch convenor Osman Hadi have been kept there. Photos of various important persons including Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, AK Fazlul Haq, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam, MA Gi Osmani, Nawab Salimullah, Ziaur Rahman and Khaleda Zia are also there.

However, no single photo of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman or any photo related to the Language Movement, United Front election, Six Points, Agartala case, mass uprising of sixty-nine, election of 1970 or the speech of March 7 was seen there. A photo of the wedding of Bangabandhu’s two sons in 1974 and three paper cuttings containing his photo have been kept.

On the other hand, three photos of Muhammad Ali Jinnah are there in the archive. One of them is from the time of his speech given at the then Race Course Maidan on March 21, 1948. In that speech he had declared Urdu as the only state language of Pakistan. Another is a group photo of the All India Muslim League conference in Lahore in 1940. The third is a cutting of a report containing Jinnah’s photo published in Pakistan’s ‘Dawn’ newspaper regarding the election of 1970.

When asked about not keeping Bangabandhu’s photo, DUCSU’s Liberation War and Mass Movement Affairs Secretary Fatima Tasnim Juma said after August 5, 2024 the photos of ‘all icons of fascism’ have been removed from the archive. Mentioning that Bangabandhu’s photo should be there in the section from 1972 to 1975, when asked the reason for not having his photo in the section from 1947 to 1971 she said, “I did not feel like it, so I did not keep it.”

When questioned about keeping Jinnah’s photo Juma said she did not keep Jinnah’s photo, she has kept a photo of an event of that time. Earlier at the time of the DUCSU election of 2025 also there were multiple photos of Bangabandhu in the archive. A staff member unwilling to disclose his name claimed that those photos were removed after the DUCSU election.