Sadik Kayem lost moral legitimacy to remain DUCSU VP after joining Jamaat: Rashed Khan

BNP leader and former DUCSU vice-president Rashed Khan has said current Dhaka University Central Students' Union (DUCSU) Vice-President Sadik Kayem has lost the moral legitimacy to continue in office after leaving Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir and joining Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.

In a Facebook post on Thursday (July 16), Rashed urged Sadik Kayem to apologise to students and step down from the DUCSU vice-president post.

Referring to the July movement, Rashed claimed that one of the movement's key demands initially proposed by Chhatra Shibir was a complete ban on student politics on university campuses. However, he said discussions later resulted in a revised demand to prohibit party-affiliated student politics, as other movement leaders did not agree to an outright ban.

He said that the same organisation has now become "the largest affiliate-based student organisation," contradicting its earlier position.

Rashed further claimed that during the DUCSU election period and the national election, the current DUCSU VP and several student leaders openly campaigned for Jamaat-backed candidates. He also noted that Sadik Kayem has now resigned from Shibir, joined Jamaat and has been nominated as the party's candidate for the Dhaka South City Corporation mayoral election.

According to Rashed, this political move contradicts the commitments made before the DUCSU election and the July movement, arguing that continuing as DUCSU VP after formally joining a political party undermines the neutrality expected of the office.

He therefore called on Sadik Kayem to resign from the vice-president's post without delay.

On Monday, Chhatra Shibir officially announced that Sadik Kayem had stepped down as the organisation's central international affairs secretary. The organisation said nine central leaders had been relieved of their responsibilities due to organisational decisions.