National politics is increasingly disrupting normal life in the country. Student politics has been doing its equivalent in some universities for a much longer period. Rajshahi University ' tops the list. The normal functioning of this university could be carried out only for J03 days ' last year. Student clashes — mostly between the Jatiayatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) and the Islamic Chhatra Shibir (ICS) — forced closure of the university for 188 days and the authority kept it closed for another 44 days just to avoid clashes.

The casualty’figures of three students killed and hands of four others chopped off and damages to the university property can well keep us guessing whether the RU campus is a battle ground or a place of study. Rajshahi University could have beaten all other universities to it. had Chittagong University not displayed an even more deplorable student militancy and exacting of revenge. In fact, all universities in the country have a record of violence enough to make the nation ashamed of.

One thing is clear that the seats of higher learning are fast degenerating into cradles of musclemanry and terrorism. The tragedy is that the general students who far outnumber the political cadres, fall helpless victims to violent student politics. The students' right to unhindered study and other academ|c activities gets . hardly encouraged by the parent political parties or the teachers at times. The question of punishing the viplators seldom arises in reql terms. In a situation like this it is difficult to maintain a congenial academic atmosphere.

The. greatest casualty of all is the higher study in the country. Why can't student politics be a battle of wits instead of armed rivalry? The challenge is here. We have to decide whether ' we meet it intellectually or the way we are doing it now. That answer will determine if we prosper or perish.