Chhatra Dal condemns display of Jinnah’s picture at Ducsu archive

The Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal has condemned the display of a 1948 picture of Muhammad Ali Jinnah at the historical archive of Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (Ducsu), calling it an insult to the university’s history and heritage.

Chhatra Dal President Rakibul Islam Rakibul and General Secretary Nasir Uddin Nasir issued the statement this morning (14 September), protesting the display.

The student organisation alleged that the “Shibir-controlled Ducsu council” was disregarding students’ aspirations and the spirit of the Liberation War through a series of actions, including an attempt to rename Madhur Canteen as “Ishrat Manzil” and the display of Jinnah’s picture at the archive.

It also alleged that the current Ducsu leadership had failed to address students’ housing crisis, realise their basic rights and ensure a proper educational environment, instead using the council to advance a specific political and ideological agenda.

“Displaying Jinnah’s picture in the archive of Ducsu, which is the centre of Bengal’s movement for autonomy, is a direct insult to the heritage of the language and independence movements,” the statement reads.

Chhatra Dal called for the immediate removal of the picture of Jinnah, whom it described as a leader who opposed the Bengali language.

It also demanded an end to the use of Ducsu as a platform for the ideology of a specific political group and said it would resist attempts to alter the history and heritage of Dhaka University, including that of Madhur Canteen.

The organisation said that just as university students protested Jinnah’s 1948 statement seeking to impose Urdu as the state language of Pakistan, Chhatra Dal would join general students in resisting what it called efforts to undermine the university’s progressive spirit, history and heritage.

The statement came a day after Fatima Tasnim Zuma, Ducsu secretary for Liberation War and Democratic Movement, re-inaugurated the historical archive on the ground floor of the Ducsu building following its renovation. Ducsu Vice-President Abu Shadik Kayem and General Secretary SM Farhad were also present.

The archive displays a solo picture of Jinnah from an event at the then Racecourse Maidan, now Suhrawardy Udyan, on 21 March 1948, where he declared Urdu as the state language of Pakistan.

It also contains a group photograph related to the 1940 Lahore Resolution and a news report from Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper featuring a picture of Jinnah in connection with the 1970 elections.