A debilitating leadership crisis seems to have engulfed Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) thanks to its fugitive acting chief Tarique Rahman and his call from London to overthrow the government with all out violence, instead of taking part in election turned him into a “liability”, causing division within the party, according a group of party insiders.
Already convicted in a litany of cases including embezzling public funds, money laundering and patronising militants during his mother led BNP-Jamaat combine that ruled the country between 2001 and 2006 and allegations of making “fat pay cuts” in exchange of offering nominations in last national election exacerbated the crisis of portrayal of him a leader worth following, alleged grassroots party activists.
A renewed zeal from some BNP leaders, parting with the party, to vie for upcoming mayoral race independently has already been deemed by analysts as telltale signs of a rift within the party rank and file, a clear slap on Tarique and his loyalists senior party leaders who reportedly asked party leaders to refrain from participating election.
“BNP’s grass-root leaderships turning up against their central command” reads a report telecast by DBC, a leading national channel, revealing participation of a good number of local BNP leaders in Gazipur city corporation election who are like “up in arms with central leadership as they are fielding nominations to vie for ward councilors”.
However, defying “threats of expulsion”, according to Bangladesh media reports, several local BNP leaders and activists have submitted nomination papers as independent candidates for the mayoral and councillor posts also.
The local BNP leaders feel that since the BNP has made a policy decision not to participate in the polls with the party symbol, they can take part independently and expressed their confidence on the existing electoral system, sending a major blow on BNP’s claim over “calling into question” the “neutrality” of the respective bodies.
“Without restoration of a caretaker system, BNP wont going to take part in any polls”, BNP senior leaders reportedly threatened, a pre-condition equally echoed by Jamaat-e-Islami.
In a stark contrast to this claim, BNP’s Hasan Azmal Bhuiyan, a four-time councillor, who submitted his nomination papers for the Gazipur City Corporation polls, told media “I have submitted nomination papers because I have been elected four times and the people of my area want me to participate in the polls. If I do not take part, those who have control over the wards will not be in safe hands. I want to maintain a relationship with the people and give importance to their opinions by running for office.”
Dhaka Tribune, a national daily, quoted Rajshahi City Corporation Ward 16 Councillor Belal Ahmed, as saying, a total of seven BNP leaders in Rajshahi are running for the councillor position.
In a further blow to the party’s public credibility, the emergence of the country as a top performer in Covid management index: ensuring free vaccine for the entire population alongside unprecedented expansion of social safety net schemes including biggest housing programme for the poor have been attributed to waning public engagement with BNP.
The pulling out of five BNP lawmakers from parliament who vowed to take the battle on the street on December 10, reportedly toeing in line with Tarique’s dictum, and months later holding of by-election in those constituencies, let alone no major public protest in those areas have been attributed to the withering public support for the party’s move, taken out from London. Moreover, a recent court rejection to the petition submitted on March 29 by Tarique and his wife’s lawyers, seeking permission to defend them in their absence surely send a blow for the Tarique’s ardent loyalists.
According to media reports, that court framed charges against the duo in absentia in a graft case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission in 2007.
And to make matter worse, a dismal track record on part of Tarique for plundering money meant for public welfare fund and money laundering already testified by a FBI official and subsequent court proceedings, according to anti-corruption campaigners, sealed the political fate of the “fugitive” leader.
Earlier, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) executive director Iftekahruzzaman said that keeping Tarique and his ailing aged mother Khaleda Zia– who have been sentenced by the court – in BNP’s top leadership “contradicts” the party’s 27-point outline for state reform, which includes stance against corruption, and is a sign of “moral decay”.
“His theft of millions of dollars in public money has undermined political stability in this moderate, Muslim-majority nation and subverted US attempts to foster a stable democratic government, a key objective in this strategically important region” how former US officials in Bangladesh described Tarique’s activity of “plundering money”.
Described by a former US ambassador to Bangladesh as “a symbol of violent politics” for notorious role during that last time rule led by his mother, Tarique has been implicated in a case to assassinate then opposition leader and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina, in collusion with militants, known as 21st August grenade attack.
A leaked US cable, thanks to wekileaks, further revealed Tarique had been deemed as a “threat to US interest” while the activities of current BNP top boss has led the officials to dub him “an image of kleptocratic government”.
According to Defence Intelligence Agency’s former deputy director general retd Major General Ganganjit Sing, Tarique and his Jamaat coterie in close rapport with some hand-picked Bangladesh intelligence officials maintained close links with Pakistani terrorist leaders and all of them were responsible for trying to illegally bring in ten truckloads of arms in 2004, reveals retired Indian Major General Gaganjit Singh.
The former deputy chief of India’s Defence Intelligence Agency ( DIA) said a month before the arrival of this huge weapons consignment, banned Pakistani terrorist leader Syed Salauddin flew to Bangladesh and held meetings with Paresh Barua, Commander-in-Chief of the separatist group United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa). ” All these happened with the blessings of top figures of BNP-Jamaat led government.,” Singh said.
Despite waning support within party’s grassroots, some extreme hardliners and fringe radicals who often run campaigns on social media pulling up westerners as “apostates” and even took part in an earlier wave of “boycott French product” campaign still project Tarique as the leader whose return can ensure their demand to bring in a “Jamaat backed extremist regime” in Bangladesh , a look at social media activities of self-confessed Tarique followers revealed.
However, the wave of slurs peddled by Tarique backed online activists campaign raise the specter of violence and undoing all the progresses the country achieved over the past decade under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina, reads social media post from Awami League activists.
“If you take into account words of these hardliners , Bangladesh’s future would be ruined.. Our country that now drawing applause from top global institutions including World Bank and International Monetary Fund, and held a model Pakistan can replicate would start making headlines for following the Pakistan path” how AL backed social media campaigners are responding.
An eminent professor in a public university says, if you take Tarique’s portrayal as a “symbol of violent politics” , and consider what Tarqiue backed campaigners are peddling then you could find there is no effort being made for course correction in past decade even staying in opposition. He requested anonymity in fear of reprisal.
Pointing out at recent bout of hate campaign against the Ahhmediya community by Basherkella, a social media platform that reportedly works as mouthpiece for Jamaat, an all-weather ally of Tarique, a university graduate of the community said “Tarqiue’s return would have been a nightmare for our community as Jamaat leaders, under last rule of BNP, publicly advocated for declaring us non-muslim.
“One of the three war criminals from Jamaat, who were made minister and reportedly exposed as a top Tarique confidante, even publicly instigated attacks on our community”, he added.
Community leaders from minority groups also echoed a similar view dubbing Tarique, a “threat to current existence of communal harmony” while a group of eminent rights activists, months back, deplored the party after a known hardcore Tarique loyalist Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, a senior BNP leader, publicly called Sultana Kamal, a known rights advocate and another Dhaka University professor, Muntasir Mamun as “AL sympathizers”.
Moreover, the public advocacy by Jamaat hired British advocate Toby Cadman who reportedly persuaded the UK government to impose a fresh spell of sanction on Bangladesh and the subsequent hue and cry of Tarique’s top aides within BNP after the plot botched out, triggered another spell of condemnation from country’s rights activists and minority leaders, exposing the decoupling drama between BNP-Jamaat.
“Since the beginning of the trials, Jamaat waged a wave of conspiracy including hiring lobbyists overseas to run a disinformation campaign to defend these war criminals overseas. Among a series of such campaigns, Cadman’s move for sanction is another pointer,” added Advocate Rana Dasgupta, general secretary of Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad.
Tarique’s father General Ziaur Rahman, who usurped state power as the country’s first military dictator in his stint after the assassination of country’s founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, legitimized the pro-Pakistan Jamaat, introduced constitutional amendments that undermined the country’s secular democratic polity, and finally declared Islam as the state religion in the youngest nation in South Asia.
(The Writer is a Dhaka Based journalist )
