BNP treads tightrope, eyes two goals

Rashed Ahmed Mitul

Bangladesh Nationalist Party is going ahead cautiously with its ongoing movement to free the party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, from jail and realise its demand for holding the 11th parliament election in free, fair and neutral manner.

The party remains alert so that the government cannot hold the next general election ‘unilaterally’ like it did on January 5, 2014, which was boycotted by BNP and most of the political parties, the party leaders say. They think that the Awami League wants to keep BNP away from the upcoming election or to weaken it through political persecution before the elections. So, they are rolling out programmes in which none would commit any act of sabotage to push BNP into an awkward situation.

Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, senior most member of BNP’s highest policymaking body, told New Age that the current movement was both for pressing the government to release Khaleda and also to make it hold a free, fair and neutral election. He said the two issues were inter-related and the government resorted to such courses (political persecution) to keep Khaleda and BNP from the next parliament election.

Asked whether the ongoing movement would turn into a single point movement for the neutral poll, Mosharraf said time would determine it. He, however, said they were expecting that Khaleda Zia would return to them getting released from jail soon and then the matter would be decided.

So far, since Khaleda was sent to jail in a graft case on February 8, BNP took soft courses of movement to avoid any confrontational situation. It also does not want to lose organisational strength through arrest of its leaders and activists much ahead of the general election scheduled for December this year. Even then, till February 15, more than 4,500 of its leaders and activists were arrested across the country since January 30, BNP claims.

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Thursday said the government made a blueprint to make BNP devoid of leadership and keep it away from the next election.

Standing committee member Moudud Ahmed said their current peaceful movement was for freeing imprisoned Khaleda and realising their demand for holding the next general election in a fair and neutral manner. 

BNP senior leaders during its recent meetings with foreign diplomats in Dhaka days before and after Khaleda’s conviction clearly stated that they wanted to participate in the next general election under a neutral government.

A special judge’s court set up at Bakshibazar Alia Madrasa ground delivered the judgement sentencing Khaleda to five years’ jail while her elder son, now acting BNP chairman, Tarique Rahman and four others to 10 years jail and fined Tk 2.10 crore each in Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.

Tarique has been staying in London since September, 2008. 

• Courtesy: New Age Feb 19, 2018