The Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal has condemned and protested against the display of a 1948 photograph of Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah at the museum of the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU).In a statement issued on Monday, Chhatra Dal President Rakibul Islam and General Secretary Nasir Uddin Nasir expressed their strong objection to the display.They recalled that on March 21, 1948, Jinnah declared at the then Racecourse Maidan that Urdu alone shall be the state language of Pakistan. Students of Dhaka University immediately protested against the statement, which they described as an act of arrogance and a key episode in the events that later contributed to the Language Movement and the Liberation War.According to the student organisation, displaying a photograph of Jinnah at the DUCSU museum is an insult to the historical legacy of the Language Movement and the struggle for independence, given the role played by Dhaka University students in those movements. Chhatra Dal also accused the current DUCSU leadership of failing to address students’ housing crisis, secure their basic rights and ensure a proper academic environment.The organisation alleged that the leadership had instead turned the students’ union into a platform for pursuing a specific political and ideological agenda, citing the alleged attempt to rename Madhur Canteen as Ishrat Manzil and the display of Jinnah’s photograph at the DUCSU museum.The Chhatra Dal leaders further alleged that such actions reflected an affinity with the forces that opposed Bangladesh’s independence in 1971 and what they described as Pakistanism. These are political allegations made by the organisation.The statement called for the immediate removal of Jinnah’s photograph from the DUCSU museum and urged the authorities to stop using the students’ union as a platform for the ideological activities of any particular political group. It also warned that the organisation would resist any attempt to distort the historical significance of Madhur Canteen and other historic symbols and institutions of Dhaka University.