THE prime minister asking once again who will be responsible for so many death and the mayhem during the student protest is a surprising question, reflecting her dogged, deplorable denial of what the government and the law enforcement units have done since July 15. The prime minister asked the question on August 1. The clear answer to the question is: the government is responsible for all the death. The protests were virtually a socio-economic movement, demanding equal opportunities for all in public jobs through reforms in the discriminatory quota system. Such a movement against discriminatory quota is natural given the rising rate of unemployment among the educated youth. The students have never asked for an abolishment of the quota system and yet, the prime minister, out of anger, as she herself admitted on July 14, abolished it in the wake of another protest in 2018. Such an action was unbecoming of a prime minister. When the movement again emerged after a High Court verdict in June, the government initially ignored it and told the students to wait for an Appellate Division verdict although the High Court allowed the executive to reform the quotas. Without resolving the crisis, the prime minister again dug at the students at a press conference on July 14, terming them, by implication, razakars.
Again, the Awami League鈥檚 general secretary, also the roads and bridges minister, on July 15, said that the Awami League鈥檚 student front Chhatra League was ready to counter the protesters. That day, Chhatra League activists forced the peaceful protest into a violent phase with attacks on protesters, including female students, at universities. As the protests intensified, the government took one brutal measure after another. The home minister deployed the police and border guards with military-grade weapons to crush the protesters. Since July 16, the protests, which now have solidarity and participation from guardians and ordinary people, the government鈥檚 irrationally brutal response left more than 200 dead and a few thousand injured. The prime minister is reported to have also questioned the logic behind the continuity of the movement when students鈥� demand for quota reforms has been met. The prime minister should realise that after all that has happened, the movement is no longer about quota reforms and the students have made it clear through their nine-point demands that it is now a movement for justice. It is hard to believe that the prime minister would not know about the nine-point demands. What is further unbelievable is that the government still continues with its irrational course of action and has already arrested more than 11,000 students and people.
The prime minister and her government should realise that such questions are an insult to the aggrieved student community and the people. The government must, therefore, heed students鈥� demands, stop the wholesale arrest of students and opposition people, abandon high-handedness and arrest real killers and bring them to justice.
