Towards the end of July, the highly anticipated date for elections to the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union was announced, delivering on a key promise of the interim government to restart the culture of student politics centering students’ union elections at the country’s leading public universities.

DU will hold its first students’ union election in six years on September 9. The final voter list containing 39,775 eligible voters- 20,871 male and 18,902 female- was published last week.

Through its long yet chequered history DUCSU has authored some glorious chapters in the history of Bangladesh.

From fiery speeches and protest rallies on the DU campus to the corridors of parliament, DUCSU’s influence over the life of the nation has been unmistakable — not just as a student body, but as a breeding ground of leadership, courage and conscientious rights-based movements from its birth.

As a leadership incubator, it shaped many prominent figures who began their political life through activism on the DU campus.

According to political analysts, several factors contribute to DUCSU’s role in grooming national leaders.

From the beginning, DUCSU has contributed to many democratic movements. Its political environment and students’ active participation on issues make it a political incubator.

Dr. Rushad Faridi, assistant professor of economics at DU, said, “Any organisation is a place for developing leadership qualities. Various posts in DUCSU and the hall's unions are platforms for practicing and nurturing leadership. I wouldn’t say only DUCSU is a place for producing leaders—any organisation, no matter how small, can serve as a ground for leadership development.”

Before the 2019 election that was won by Nurul Huq Nur, the last DUCSU election was held six months before the fall of the Ershad regime, in June 1990. Yet strangely, the advent of democracy on the national stage spelled doomsday for DUCSU and its equivalent bodies in the other public universities, as nearly all of them went into limbo around the same time.

Why or how this was allowed to happen, is still worthy of deeper study.

One theory is that the university administrations failed to organise the elections under pressure from the ruling parties, or their student wings.

Yet history tells us that when what would’ve been the first DUCSU election following the fall of Ershad was announced in 1994, it eventually couldn’t be held due to opposition from the Awami League.

It was the same again the following year. Whatever the reason may have been, one thing that almost everyone can agree on is that the absence of SU elections has a very negative impact on the overall standard of student politics.

“We know why elections are not held. One major reason elections have not taken place since the 1990s is that whichever party comes to power, its affiliated student organisations do not want elections as they already hold leadership positions on campus. They fear that if elections are held, leadership might pass into others hands. As a result, the campus ends up under the control of the ruling party. No work is then done to protect the interests of general students,” Dr. Rushad said.

He added that the path for the development of new student leadership or those who want to engage in genuine politics gets blocked.

“Consequently, we don’t see any new energetic and mature politicians at the national level either. Thus, a culture of thuggery is practiced on campus, and this trend is reflected in national politics as well.”

Years in the Wilderness

After the 1990 election, the last DUCSU election was held in 2019. In a case of supreme irony, the advent of democracy following the fall of the autocratic government of H.M. Ershad saw DUCSU pushed to the backburner. There are allegations that due to pressure from the ruling party’s student organisation and various quarters, the university administration could not organise the election. However, experts opine that there are harmful consequences of not holding the DUCSU election.

Rushad Faridi said that the absence of elections has a very negative impact.

“We know why elections are not held. One major reason elections have not taken place since the 1990s (till 2019) is that whichever party comes to power, its affiliated student organisations do not want elections as they already hold leadership positions on campus. They fear that if elections are held, leadership might pass into others hands. As a result, the campus ends up under the control of the ruling party. No work is then done to protect the interests of general students.”

He added that the path for the development of new student leadership or those who want to engage in genuine politics gets blocked.

“Consequently, we don’t see any new energetic and mature politicians at the national level either. Thus, a culture of thuggery is practiced on campus, and this trend is reflected in national politics as well.”

DUCSU leaders who became MPs:

Over the decades, a number of leaders of DUCSU have gone on to become members of the parliament.

Ataur Rahman Khan, GS in 1929-30; Farid Ahmad, VP in 1946-47; Professor Ghulam Azam, GS 1947-49 (twice); S. A. Bari, VP, and Julmat Ali Khan, GS in 1953-54; K M Obaydur Rahman, GS in 1962-63; Rashed Khan Menon, VP and Matia Chowdhury, GS in 1963-64; Ashraf Ud-Doullah Pahloan, GS in 1964-65; Tofayel Ahmed, VP and Nazim Kamran Choudhuri, GS in 1968-69; A. S. M. Abdur Rab, VP in 1971, Abdul Kuddus Makhan, GS in 1971, Zia Uddin Ahmed Bablu, GS in 1982, Sultan Mohammad Mansur Ahmed, VP in 1989-90, Amanullah Aman, VP in 1990-91 and Khairul Kabir Khokon, GS in 1990-91.