The DU authorities clamping of a 7-day mora torium on visible forms of student politics, like holding rallies and taking out processions on the campus, has been grossly disproportionate to the magnitude of the challenge posea by some recent incidents in Dhaka University. This is not to say we are for a stronger or a long-duration ban on student politics. Instead we are suggesting that the move, even though taken in an understandable desperation to allow the cauldron-like situation to subside, actually slurs over the urgerit need for a code of conduct to be entered upon by the student organisations, teachers' bodies and the national political parties when it comes to letting the seats of higher learning function.

Never before has the compulsion been so acutely felt to extricate the academic writ from the clutch of demanding and Indulgent national politics, issue-based reactionary overkill on both sides, and armed and violent manifestations thereof along the corridors and in other premises of the campus. Raw nerves came into play with the authority of and the respect for teachers — some of them seemingly having their political scores to settle — ebbing to a new low. The library did not open, classes had their shutters down and. all of these, regrettably, in a season of examinations. Many examinations could not just be held. The administrative wing of the university stopped functioning and the residential halls were engulfed by commotion and gun-runnfhg that threatened to put the whole edifice of higher education in jeopardy.

Against this background, the brief moratorium on students' political activities comes as a palliative measure touching on the fringe of the problem. It is Just an addition to the series of ad hoc measures we had taken recourse to, hopping from one contingency to another, as the objective situation on the campus deteriorated and the academic agenda slid backwards. We have reached a point where we look for escape routes through private universities here and the academic institutions abroad. Keeping to expedient wisdom,, typical of us, that an issue, if allowed to run its course, will automatically fizzle out does not quite work on the campus. This is something we have learnt the hard way. But are we acting by the knowledge?

The major political parties are convinced coverts to the iaea that leverage must be secured in student politics at any cost to have clout in national politics which could brighten the prospects for a victory in the general elections. Back in time, student parties had felt drawn to national political parties of their own volition and prided themselves on having connections with them but this craving is now being witnessed in the reverse order in the relative sense, that is. The political parties are falling-head over heels to cultivate students and teachers of the varsities to keep their hold on campus politics. We are not saying that the links per se are bad; for, of course, there should be the penchant for upholding one set of principles as against another set of these. That is perfectly admissible, even welcome, in a pluralistic society because here is a numerically large part of the intelligentsia of the country who are fully entitled to be conscious of whatever is happening around and hold their divergent views on national issues as opinion-builders in a largely under-educated society. The battle-lines have to be drawn there and not as an extension of national politics in virulent and selfdestructive forms on the campus.