TWO factions of the JCD, the student front of the BNP, are reported to be engaged in a fight for supremacy on the Dhaka University campus. The troubled engagement revolves around control over seats in the dormitories and collection of tolls from different sources. They have clashed with each other at least six times since a new JCD committee was formed early this year.

Students have complained that the situation was more or less similar when the BCL was dominating the campus politics during the AL rule. Things are not changing for the better.

The chronic problem is actually at the root of the worrying syndrome called campus violence. The political parties, the major ones to be precise, have been consistent enough in their commitment to peace and a conducive academic atmosphere on the campus. But the commitment has not been translated into action against the unruly elements within the student organisations.

They have set up the illegal business of collecting tolls from traders and contractors working in and around the campus. The seats in the dormitories are another source of wheeling and dealing for so-called students activists.

There is no reason why the political parties should still be unaware of the presence of outsiders in their student bodies. But lack of action against the undesirable elements is indeed a mystery that continues to baffle all the stakeholders.

When two groups within the student organisation linked to the ruling party fight for the dubious honour of having no challenger in illegal activities, the vulnerability of the campus to violence increases manifold.

That is a truth that the BNP policymakers must not only realise but also act upon to weed out hooliganism from student politics. As the ruling party BNP has to take the initiative to rein in elements that can be a liability to its image.