Sadik Kayem, vice-president of the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU), has demanded that candidates who passed the primary school teacher recruitment exam but were dropped in the name of verification be told the reasons and given the chance to appeal to the relevant authority.
He made the demand in a statement on Friday, calling the dropping of successful young candidates in the name of verification an extremely discriminatory, unfair and unjust decision.
The young people who have been dropped do not themselves know why, Sadik Kayem said. Most of them have no criminal cases against them, no record of being accused of any crime and no specific allegations.
Under Article 29 of Bangladesh’s constitution, equality of opportunity in public employment is every citizen’s constitutional right, he said. Yet the dreams of hundreds of talented young people have been shattered without any clear reason being given.
Sadik Kayem alleged that the current government had borrowed this pattern of partisanship in government jobs and of cancelling appointments in the name of verification from the “fascist era”. In his view, it repeats the same structure in which identity, loyalty and political considerations are given more weight than merit and qualifications.
Today a young person is being dropped from a job not on the basis of their qualifications but through a vague process such as verification, he said. Tomorrow, the same fear could be used to try to keep a whole generation on its knees. He also demanded a fresh decision on every candidate who was dropped.
Noting that most of the country’s educated young people come from low- and middle-income families, Sadik said that for them getting a job after higher education is not just about building a career but the only way to support their families and live a little better. He alleged that by holding that dream hostage in the name of verification, the government wants to turn the country’s educated generation into one obedient to the party.
In the statement, the DUCSU vice-president demanded a clear explanation from the government, and called for an end to harassment and uncertainty in the name of verification and a fresh decision on every candidate unfairly dropped.
Where there is a clear allegation against a candidate, it should be communicated to the candidate and they should be given the chance to appeal to the relevant authority, Sadik Kayem demanded.
Every appointment to a government job must be completely impartial, free of party influence, transparent, accountable and non-discriminatory, he said. Merit and qualifications must be the only criteria for recruitment.
Sadik Kayem also said that this decision by the BNP government, which came to power at the cost of the blood of more than a thousand martyrs, is a clear betrayal of the anti-discrimination July revolution.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report