Volunteers take a motor boat to rescue people stranded in flooded residential areas in Feni, a coastal district in southeast Bangladesh. (AP Photo)
Student protest survey
Protests in Bangladesh began in July triggered by the apex court’s decision for 30 per cent reservation for freedom fighters’ descendants in government jobs. In response, the court scaled down reservation to 5 per cent. Even so, the protests continued unabated, spearheaded by students. In this context, Prothom Alo – among the country’s leading news organisations – carried out a survey asking whether protests should be allowed in educational institutions.
About 3.27 lakh people voted, of which 93 per cent believe that student politics should be stopped in institutions. The Daily Star comments on this result saying it “reflects widespread frustration and disillusionment with the current culture of student politics in Bangladesh.” But the editorial also believes that this mistrust stems from a “faulty premise”: “The simplistic manner in which such surveys are framed misses the critical point that it’s not student politics per se — but rather party-based student politics — that is problematic.”
Dhaka Tribune (August 19), however, calls this movement “a watershed moment in the history of Bangladesh, proving once again that it is the youth that can lead to genuine change.”
The Daily Star (August 16) editor Mahfuz Anam concurs with this perspective adding, “The student-mass uprising has… opened the door for all of us to dream again. Freedom is in the air and our right to free speech seems to have been regained. What the students have taught us is to never lose hope.”
Floods in the eastern region
Several districts in eastern Bangladesh were hit by floods earlier this week. So far, nearly 8,00,000 people have been rendered homeless and at least 13 have died. On the other side of the border in India, the northeastern state of Tripura is also battling heavy floods that started on August 19. There have been claims that the Bangladesh floods may have been triggered by the opening of the Dumbur dam in Tripura. But these reports were rejected by the Government of India. The Bangladeshi press and columnists discuss the situation in the country and India’s involvement.
The Government of India denies opening the reservoir gates, saying that the water flowing into Bangladesh is the excess overflowing after crossing the 94-m mark which is the dam’s full capacity. Dhaka Tribune columnist Sultan Mohammed Zakaria (August 23) disagrees, saying the flooding would have been “on a significantly smaller scale” if this was the case.
The Daily Star (August 22) also believes that some part of the blame lies with India: “Although India’s ministry of external affairs refuted claims of causing the flooding on our eastern borders, Bangladesh’s information adviser has categorically blamed it for opening the dam without any prior warning, depriving Bangladesh of the chance to prepare accordingly.”
Prothom Alo (August 24) makes no mention of India’s role. The editorial, instead, focuses on rehabilitation for those affected and relief efforts saying, “the thing that gives us hope is the active initiative of people from different classes and professions… The government should focus on assessing the number of casualties and the extent of damage when the water recedes.”
adya.goyal@expressindia.com
