Jinnah’s Photo Torn Down at DUCSU, Image of Rajakar Ghulam Azam Being Beaten with Shoes Put Up

❐ Campus Representative

A picture of Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah was torn to pieces at the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) museum. A university student tore the picture after breaking its frame at the museum on Monday afternoon.

Later, leaders and activists of the Dhaka University Students Federation hung a picture of the infamous Razakar Golam Azam being shoed in Baitul Mukarram in 1981.

The student who tore Jinnah’s picture is named Abu Tayyab Havildar. He is a student of the university in the 2001-02 academic session and is currently studying in the fourth year of the Urdu department. He contested as the oldest candidate for the post of Vice President (VP) in the last DUCSU elections.

Abu Tayyab Havildar said, “Why will this villain’s picture be in DUCSU? We have not forgotten 1971 and the language struggle.”

His question was whether there was any mention of establishing Jinnah as a hero in DUCSU’s election manifesto.

Earlier, the DUCSU museum was reopened after renovations on Sunday. Three new photographs of Mohammad Ali Jinnah were added there. One of them is a photograph of Jinnah’s speech given at the then Race Course Ground on March 21, 1948. In that speech, he stood in favor of Urdu as the sole state language of Pakistan.

Another photo is a group photo of the annual conference of the All India Muslim League in Lahore in March 1940, where Jinnah was present.

The third is a paper cutting from a report published in Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper on the 1970 elections, which featured a picture of Jinnah.

A controversy arose yesterday over the inclusion of Jinnah’s picture in the archive. DUCSU’s Liberation War and Democratic Movement Affairs Editor Fatima Tasneem Juma said that no single picture of Jinnah has been kept there. Pictures of various events related to Dhaka University from 1905 to 1971 have been included in a single frame.

Today, after tearing down Jinnah’s picture, the leaders and activists of the Student Federation hung a picture of Razakar Golam Azam being beaten with shoes in the museum. The picture is from an incident in 1981. In that picture, Razakar Golam Azam is seen being beaten with shoes in Baitul Mukarram.

Ark Barua, organizing secretary of the Dhaka University branch of the Students Federation, said, “Yesterday, Fatima Tasnim Juma said that she wanted to put up Jinnah’s picture. Similarly, we wanted to put up Razakar Ghulam Azam’s picture, so we put it up.”

Meanwhile, regarding the incident of the destruction of Jinnah’s portrait, DUCSU General Secretary Shibir Leader SM Farhad said that the purpose of keeping Jinnah’s statement on declaring Urdu as the sole state language of Pakistan in the archive was to highlight his position against Bangladesh.

SM Farhad said, “Hiding history means taking Jinnah’s side instead of revealing it.” He also commented that he did not understand why the students broke the picture.

Bangladesh Nationalist Chhatra Dal has also protested against the placement of Jinnah’s picture. The organization said that the addition of Jinnah’s picture to the DUCSU archive is a sign of a departure from the spirit of the Liberation War.