P. K. Balachandran
Bengali students won their second historic battle for rights in 72 years when the Bangladesh Supreme Court on Sunday scrapped contentious quotas and installed merit as the principal criterion for recruitment to white-collar government jobs.
University students in Bangladesh, who were on a country-wide struggle since July 5 against an unfair quota system in recruitment to white collar government jobs, won the battle on Sunday when the Supreme Court scrapped most of the quotas and enthroned merit as the principal criterion.
The is the second landmark victory of Bengali students. The first was the successful four-year battle to install Bengali as one of the official languages of Pakistan. That battle ended in 1956 with a constitutional amendment making both Urdu and Bengali as the official languages of Pakistan.
The just-ended struggle was for justice in an economic situation where joblessness among the university-educated is as high as 46%.
The second struggle was no less hard as the police opened fire at several places and the students wing of the ruling Awami League mercilessly attacked fellow students, both boys and girls, with sticks. The death toll was 114. Hundreds were injured in clashes across the country.
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