EDUCATION is the backbone of the nation and undermining or vitiating it in any form can only have disastrous effects on it. Many developing nations, including India, have used education as a powerful tool for economic progress and prosperity.

But what are we doing? A congenial academic atmosphere is now absent even in many reputable institutions due, largely, to the activities of the ruling party's student wing fanning out in different moneymaking directions. In addition to indulging in tender business, the BCL cadres are reportedly thriving on booming admission business in the colleges.

Dhaka College, which has a long and glorious history as one of the leading educational institutions of the country, is now the scene of the BCL activists trying to control the admission process. They went to the extent of preventing admission seekers from appearing in their viva voce on Sunday. Of course, they used muscle power to drive away the genuine students. They are demanding a 'political quota' of 500 seats for their organisation on the basis of a 400 seats quota they had last year. Quota means a huge amount of money as the seats will be sold out to the students wanting to get admission through the dark alleys of corruption — now almost institutionalised in the academic arena, obviously to the detriment of the interest of deserving candidates.

Needless to say, the slide in the standard of education will continue if the admission business is not stopped as a matter of top priority. The future of the nation is bound to be bleak if student leaders are allowed to take charge of the admission process.

The question is, who will stop it? The BCL has been committing all sorts of excesses in the educational institutions that couldn't have nor did it escape the AL high command's notice. The prime minister herself rebuked and warned the errant BCL activists of dire consequences. But all the warnings and exhortations have gone unheeded with similar rapidity with which these were spewed out by leaders, with the result that they have only provided sinews to the culture of impunity they think they are heir to by virtue of being associated with ruling party.

It is high time that zero tolerance is shown to vandalism and corrupt practices on campuses not in mere words, but in actual deeds that make examples out of them with a deterrent effect. It is hard to believe that the AL cannot control the ominous forces out to ruin everything in the academic arena. They are expected to gauge the extent of the danger that the nation is exposed to because ofwheeling and dealing with as sacrosanct an arena as education. It is too precious an affair to be left to hooligans and vandals. Bring the culprits to justice.