June 5: After a High Court bench ordered the reinstatement of the freedom fighter quota in government jobs, Nurul Haque Nur, the founder of the Chhatra Odhikar Parishad, which launched the quota reform movement in 2018, said: “I think reinstating the quota system that students had abolished through an active movement for about 7 months through the court is a direct betrayal of the government with the student community. At that time, the government had formed a committee to abolish the quota, which reviewed and abolished the quota. Now the president of Gono Odhikar Parishad, Nur said: “Now the government will use the court again to achieve its political interests. Because we all know that everything is under the control of the government now.” Asked about his plans, Nur said: “We have already spoken to former colleagues of the movement. Currently, students who are in Chhatra Odhikar Parishad are also creating a platform to lead. They will protest strongly there. We will also cooperate with them as needed.”

July 5: Dhaka University’s BNP-Jamaat-affiliated teachers’ organization, the White Panel, expressed support for the anti-quotum movement, terming it rational and fair.

July 5: Coordinator Zonayed Saki, on behalf of the Ganatantra Mancha, expressed support for both movements. He said: “The opposition party is not conspiring against the students’ movement. We clearly support the students’ movement; we support the teachers’ movement.”

July 5: Bangladesh JSD has expressed moral support for the ongoing students’ movement regarding quota in government jobs.

July 6: Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader said: “The BNP will now rely on the teachers’ movement. It has again taken a policy decision to rely on the quota movement.”

July 6: BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir termed the students’ demands logical. At the same time, he also supported the teachers’ movement demanding the abolition of the national pension scheme and called for its withdrawal. “The quota system cannot be helpful in developing talent in any class, whether it is the first, second, third, or fourth. Building a nation and society without discrimination based on merit is contradictory to the commitment of the Liberation War. The current authoritarian government is trying to suppress the logical movement of the student community by using the judiciary to suppress the just demands of the people. In this time of the 21st century, if we are to survive in a global system based on technology and knowledge, there is no alternative to establishing a merit-based state system. Therefore, we agree with the logical demands of the quota reform movement of the general student community. The BNP’s anti-quota movement is being broadcast live on Facebook on the official page. BNP’s contemporaries have officially supported it.”

July 6: Saiful Haque, one of the leaders of the Ganatantra Mancha, said: “The movement of ordinary students against the quota system is fair. As a political party, we and the Ganatantra Mancha have their full support. This is our responsibility.”

July 6: Jatiya Party chief GM Quader said that the quota system is unconstitutional. At a party event in Gazipur, he said: “University students are agitating for the abolition of the quota system in jobs. The quota system has become an obstacle to moving our country forward. The quota system is completely against Articles 29, 1, 2, 3 of the Constitution of Bangladesh. It cannot be legalized by amending the Constitution. The Constitution does not give the power to change Articles 29, 1, 2, and 3 related to fundamental rights.”

July 6: AB Party leader Mojibur Rahman Manju, who was previously a leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, said: “If an attempt is made to bring back the 71 East Pakistani discrimination in Bangladesh by reintroducing discriminatory quotas, another Liberation War will become inevitable.”

July 6: Sheikh Fazle Bari Masud, assistant secretary general of the Islamic Andolan Bangladesh and president of the Dhaka Metropolitan North, said: “How can you run the state with the help of the untalented while maintaining the quota system and creating discrimination in the field of education?”

July 7: The Democratic Students’ Alliance, a front of seven leftist student organizations, expressed solidarity with the anti-quotamovement, calling it a rebellious stance against state-sponsored discrimination. From a press conference, the student organizations said that due to the narrow interests and discriminatory policies of the rulers, the freedom fighter quota has become a symbol of discrimination instead of creating social equality. However, abolishing the quota is by no means a solution. A rational reform of the quota is needed. Left student leaders demanded the abolition of the “discriminatory” freedom fighter quota and ensuring a reasonable quota for underdeveloped towns, backward ethnicities, and deprived classes.