Once again, a fresher was tortured by a group of activists belonging to the student wing of the ruling party at a dormitory of Dhaka University. The incident took place at the guest room of Dhaka University's Bijoy Ekattor Hall two weeks back. The victim turned senseless at one stage from looking constantly at the bulb of the room. His offence was not to attend a session, conducted by the BCL activists, meant for the fresh students. Later he was admitted to Dhaka Medical College. The victim, however, mustered enough courage to make a written complaint to the provost of the dormitory naming the torturers.
The sad and unacceptable incident shows that there is no end to the reckless attitude of a section of the ruling party-backed student organisation's activists. Over the years, the deviants among them in different public universities across the country have involved themselves in deplorable acts their own organisation has condemned. The perpetrators have even been expelled from the organisation. As long as this does not happen, leaders and members of the organisation continue to deny or ignore the allegations. This is a mistake. If they are reined in early, things cannot go to the extreme.
Though the bad culture of ragging is not new, the thing has already reached a level of sadistic atrocity. Unfortunately, the university authorities have totally failed to contain such tortures and harassment. It is the responsibility of the vice-chancellor, proctor and hall provosts to take administrative measures against such offences. But they have failed to do what is expected of them. The failure of the university administration to ensure the safety and security of students from such intimidation is totally unacceptable.
Again, a politically-biased group is backing this kind of illegal and immoral act by referring to previous incidents. They have either forgotten or intentionally ignore the thing that inhuman instances of intimidation can't be logical to support the current form of torture. This kind of attitude is counter to the environment of pursuing knowledge. This group of people is actually doing more harm to both the victims and the intimidators.
The victims of torture have to suffer both physically and mentally for long. The horror of intimidation hunts many of them in later years. In the absence of necessary counselling, they sometimes fail to use their potential. Again, some of the victims become bullies and try to avenge the wrong done to them on their juniors and innocent ones.
Today, those who are involved in torturing with impunity may think that they are above the law and always will be. Wrong guidance and immoral support are actually encouraging them to be autocratic in their behaviour and actions.
In the near future, many of them will be in administrative and other jobs. The practice of intimidation for demonstration of power and authority will not leave them. Instead of providing service or performing duties duly, they may thus repeat the bullying in a different form. The consequences may be disastrous. So, it is time to go for corrective measures immediately.
