A "pro-Bangladesh" coalition, comprising student organization leaders, activists and general students, gathered on Monday to sing Bangladesh's national anthem, claiming to practise the way of Bangladesh and opposing the anti-Bangladesh powers.
This event took place at around 7:15pm in front of the Raju Memorial Sculpture, University of Dhaka.
The coalition will arrange a similar program at Central Shaheed Minar on Wednesday on a bigger scale.
Earlier, on Sunday, they had arranged a similar program.
Leaders and activists from Chhatra Dal, Bangladesh Democratic Students' Council, Bangladesh Students' Union, Revolutionary Student Unity, Student Federation, and cultural organizations, along with general students, were present at the event.
The initiative to sing the national anthem together stems from a Shahbag blockade demanding the Awami League's ban, where a group of protesters were reportedly barred from singing the national anthem, after their demands were met on Sunday.
Chhatra Dal leaders took the initiative. No organization was approached formally to ensure the general students' participation, according to leaders of the organization.
Md Nasir Uddin Shawon, senior joint general secretary of Chhatra Dal's DU unit, told Dhaka Tribune: "Both the national anthem and national flag are the indicators of our nationality; criticizing them is tantamount to treason and criticizing the Liberation War."
"I think every party practising politics in Bangladesh should uphold the Liberation War of Bangladesh, or else they should not have the right to practise politics," Shawon added.
Abdul Kader, convener of DU Bangladesh Democratic Students' Council, said: "I am not viewing the national anthem as a personal song or a work by Rabindranath Tagore. Instead, we see it as a song of the liberation struggle - an emotional expression of our collective spirit."
One of the organizers of the event, Bijoy Ekattor Hall Chhatra Dal Office Secretary Sakib Biswess, told Dhaka Tribune that there is no surety that those who question the national anthem will not question the national flag and sovereignty.
"We want everyone to follow the way of Bangladesh," said Sakib.
However, there is one portion of DU students who oppose the idea of singing the national anthem as proof of nationalism.
They claim that this idea is the Awami League's narrative.
Jamaluddin Muhammad Khalid, convener of Swadhin Bangladesh Chhatra Sangsad, told Dhaka Tribune that a few days ago, there was a plan by Chhatra League and Chayanat to collectively sing the national anthem at the Central Shaheed Minar, which they claimed to have collectively prevented.
"Being a Bangladeshi nationalist or being Bangladeshi is not something you prove by singing the national anthem. The Awami League's narrative that you are not Bangladeshi if you do not sing the anthem was problematic," he argued.
