Student movement: Grassroots committees to be formed soon

The student movement against discrimination will form grassroot-level committees as soon as possible with students who participated in the July uprising.
Besides, central organising and central executive committees will be formed by next week, its leaders decided at a nearly four-hour-long meeting at their office at the capital’s Banglamotor yesterday.
More than 80 of the 158 coordinators joined the meeting.
The appointments of new advisers to the government, the relation between the platform and the administration, the question of whether the president should stay, extortion in the name of coordinators, lack of coordination among stakeholders of the uprising were discussed at the meeting.
Most participants said they want to incorporate all student forces that have parted ways after the mass uprising because of lack of coordination, according to multiple sources.
“It is our failure that we couldn’t hold the forces together, but from now on, we will try to bring them back under one umbrella to uphold the spirit of our movement,” said a coordinator.
The student movement will form district-, upazila- and institution-based committees across the country. “If we have a structure, there will be fewer complaints about individuals posing as coordinators,” said a participant.
The student movement against discrimination spearheaded the uprising that led to the fall of the Awami League government on August 5. The student movement on October 22 announced a four-member convening committee. The members are Hasnat Abdullah, Arif Sohel, Abdul Hannan Masud and Umama Fatima.
District-level committees have been formed in Kushtia, Narail, Netrakona, Chuadanga, Sunamganj and Meherpur.
Another aligned platform of the students, Jatiya Nagorik Committee, is also forming district-level committees.
After yesterday’s meeting, Abdul Hannan Masud, chief organiser of the platform, said, “We will ask the government why the injured are yet to be recognised and why they have to demonstrate for their demands.”
Arif Sohel, member secretary, said the students would not act as a force of the interim government.
“Rather, we will continue to raise our voices against everything the government does wrong,” he said.
An assistant coordinator said, “We need to clarify if we are in support of the government or not.”
Another said, “We need to know what the people want. They want lower prices of essentials.”
A coordinator proposed holding a national convention. Most of the participants said there should be better coordination among themselves.
Masud said most of the advisers were not being held accountable, and it is unclear what they were doing, sources said.
He said the relation between the platform and the government was dialectic. “It is our duty to question the wrong decisions by the government. We also want to ask why the prices of essentials do not drop,” he said.