JCD to rely on old, irregulars again
Formation of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) central committee with regular students might be ignored once again as the BNP high command is planning to announce a convening committee with a number of aged leaders.
JCD is now a stagnant organisation lacking fresh blood; leadership crisis at every level is crippling it due to want of democratic practices.
JCD, one of the largest student organisations in the country, has miserably failed to develop new leadership over the last 20 years.
Party leaders said a convening committee might be announced any time as part of the initiative of BNP to pattern the party and its associated bodies in a democratic way.
“It's sure that the committee will be announced soon,” BNP's Students Affairs Secretary Fazlul Haque Milon told The Daily Star yesterday.
A group of former student leaders including Aman Ullah Aman, Fazlul Haque Milon, Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anee were assigned to prepare a draft committee but they failed to reach a consensus, party sources said.
Insiders said the BNP chairperson is now considering reviewing at least three draft committees submitted by former student leaders.
Another source, however, said all the proposed committees had been sent to Tarique Rahman, now in London, to finalise those, as it was Tarique who looked after JCD before the 2001 national election.
But neither the party leaders nor former student leaders agreed to comment on the issue.
When asked BNP Standing Committee member Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman only said that the party is now working on the committees of its associated bodies and definitely JCD will get the highest priority.
The BNP chairperson appointed Azizul Baree Helal and Shafiul Bari Babu as JCD president and general secretary on January 1, 2005 for a two-year tenure.
Over the last two years no fresh committee was announced. JCD leaders said the fresh committee was delayed for the state of emergency that was in force for two years.
Both Helal and JCD Senior Vice President Sultan Salahuddin Tuku contested the December 29 election as BNP candidates but none of them could win.
Meanwhile, a fresh row over aged student leaders erupted in JCD as its parent organisation BNP is going to announce the convening committee, which would declare a full-fledged committee through council.
Some younger leaders and a section of senior leaders, who still have a chance to get a berth in the new committee, are demanding a fresh central committee instead of a convening one, excluding married, professional and over 40 year-old leaders, sources added.
Most of the central leaders of the Helal-Babu committee are now above 40 and many of them are involved in different professions, the sources added.
While talking to The Daily Star, a number of young leaders of JCD alleged that senior leaders are not allowing younger ones to come to leadership creating gridlock in the organisation.
“We have completed our master's degree but did not get membership even in the hall units,” said a JCD activist of Hazi Muhammad Mohsin Hall unit, adding that the committee should include dedicated activists who are still students.
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