— Mohammad Zainal Abedin
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| Deshnayok Tarique Rahman |
It is a billion-dollar question why ‘Tarique Rahman is Inevitable for Bangladesh.’ Every nation whenever faces an insurmountable crisis, it finds and chooses a salvager, whom the people trust will be able to salvage the country from the ditches of uncertainty and the reign of anarchy. Bangladesh now faces the same situation. Every Bangladeshi now feels their future is gloomy. Their country is under that paw of an obstinate aggressive hawk. They feel that they badly need a salvager who can take the country back to its proper channel rescuing it from the brink of destruction.
Though there is no scale to measure the exact popularity and acceptability of any leader, it is calculable, in most cases, if anyone can accurately study the prevailing situation and the sentiment of the common people of any country.
When the analysts opine that Tarique Rahman enjoys the highest level of popularity, they of course, observe the sentiment of the people. That sentiment is so high in favor of Tarique Rahman that indicates that he is the most popular among all other current party leaders of Bangladesh.
I personally contacted some Bangladeshis hailing from Dinajpur, Barisal, Chittagong, Sylhet and Khulna of Bangladesh to get their personal opinions regarding Tarique Rahman who possess identical opinions.
I came to learn Bangladeshis strongly believe that Tarique Rahman developed his intellectuality and became a people’s leader over the years, because he frequently participates at zoom meetings on different occasions and speaks on issues and explains them with accurate information and their solutions that brings him close to the people, which convinces them that he is the only leader who can lead the country.
They informed thousands of audiences assembled at any venue whenever any district level leader attends a meeting even in the remote village. One of them said, “We cannot accommodate room for the attendees even in any union level meeting. Most of the attendees are entirely non-political common people.”
Since Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman started zoom meetings with the district level leaders the volume of the attendees has increased by leaps and bounds. The district level leaders spread these timely messages to the grassroots level common people. Besides, many of them directly listen to the speeches of Tarique Rahman through YouTube, Facebook, cell phone, Explaining the reason for such huge gatherings he said, “Since BNP Tweeter, and even online print and electronic media.” These meetings proved very effective for the party and Tarique Rahman’s leadership, he added.
A leader naturally becomes indispensable if he is extraordinary in all counts. Tarique Rahman is really a unique leader on all counts. His parental credentials and their reputation as President and Prime Minister are exceptional in history. Their honesty, sincerity and devotion to people and patriotism for the country made them immortal in Bangladesh.
His parents taught him how and why to lead a pious, greedless and an honest life. He earned all the good qualities of his parents and possesses honesty, courage, vision, integrity, strategic planning capacity, creative and innovative power, above all, leader-like personality.
Tarique Rahman, during his grassroots level conference all over the country, forgetting his status, even security directly went to the doorstep of the people, entered inside their cottages, sat on their mats, ate what they gave to him. He distributed clothes among the marginalized villagers, presented them with calves, goats, sheep, cash money, to make them self-reliant. He provided stipends to the poor but meritorious students that helped them to build their future. He accurately thought if grassroots people are empowered and made self-reliant, the whole Bangladesh will become a developed and prosperous country.
On other hand, Tarique Rahman like father Shahid Ziaur Rahman also excavated and re-excavated canals, even rivers, to preserve water during the rainy season and use them for irrigation during the dry season, because India blockades the waters in the upstream of the international rivers. Tarique Rahman like a bard moved all over Bangladesh and exchanged views with even the fishermen, rickshaw pullers, day laborers, and listened to their untold stories of sorrows and sufferings and later tried to mitigate their problems, though he was none in the BNP government.
If anyone observes the character and activities of Tarique Rahman, he will find in Tarique Rahman’s character, as if, the combination of almost all the ideological virtues of his parents — Shahid Ziaur Rahman and Begum Khaleda Zia — which they possessed and practiced in their personal life and running the statecraft. Tarique Rahman also nurses those virtues like honesty, patience, diligence, patriotism, and all other human qualities with utmost sincerity.
Like his parents, Tarique is also honest, soft spoken, mild, gentle, endurant, and benevolent. He was never rude to anyone but remained strict to his ideology. He is devoted to his religion and country and believes in the religious freedom and equal rights of those who belong to other faiths.
For all these reasons, despite his opponents’ hectic conspiracies against him, Tarique Rahman was repeatedly proved as honest.
Still, the horrendous inhuman torture on Tarique Rahman basing on falsified allegations orchestrated by Moin-Fakhar axis drew the sympathy of the common people that ultimately played a great role to popularize him.Sheikh Hasina-led government in 2009 also undertook a fallacious policy of lodging baseless lawsuits and launching round the clock media disinformation against Begum Khaleda Zia, Tarique Rahman and hundreds of thousands of BNP, including .
A front-ranking attorney of Bangladesh Supreme Court Bar Association informed, despite repeated inquiry the government failed to produce substantial evidence before the Court. The allegations of money-laundering, misappropriation of public money, extortion, smuggling of arms to India, grenade attack on Hasina’s rally, and all other defamatory allegations were totally fake and false. But Sheikh Hasina used the Court to award conviction to keep Tarique Rahman out of Bangladesh and its politics.
When asked about allegations against Hawa Bhaban, this Barrister said, “It was the political office of Begum Khalida Zia, which was also used as a research center.” “But Sheikh Hasina is so vindictive that led her to brand an important research center as a haunt of crime.” When asked about the impact of the biased and baseless allegations against Tarique Rahman, and the subsequent imprisonment, he opined, “These emerged as counterproductive for Sheikh Hasina, as people now feel she became isolated. But as she is desperate to remain in power, she is sure it will not be possible if Tarique Rahman comes back to Bangladesh. So, she awarded imprisonment to Tarique. “But her trickery made Tarique more popular than ever before,” opined.
Political observers in Dhaka opined, Sheikh Hasina’s allegations against Tarique Rahman became a good certification of honesty for him. It is really a boomerang for Hasina. Tarique Rahman is now a clean leader that made him more popular and more acceptable to the people.
Analyzing Tarique Rahman’s inner qualities, Vice Chancellor of Dhaka University M. Manirruzzaman Miah opined, “Tarique Rahman is living up to our expectation, and adeptly following the legacy of his father. We enjoy the reflection of Shaheed Zia in Tarique Rahman’s constructive actions of growth and development. That is why we have seen how he took numerous progressive initiatives during the last BNP period, which in turn, changed the visage of Bangladesh. No sphere of national life was unmarked in his policy programs, and this gives us full faith that Tarique Rahman is the most appropriate person to lead the BNP and the nation.”
I also tune to the words of Vice Chancellor Manirruzzaman Miah, who acclaimed him suggesting “I believe that Tarique Rahman will go forward firmly in the way towards truth, justice and welfare with the strength of patriotism, upholding his father’s ideology and programs of action.”
Tarique Rahman’s own qualities and capabilities, above all, his popularity and acceptability, made him an asset for Bangladesh. He is the only leader who can take Bangladesh back to its desired track. Bangladeshis also feel for his leadership, as no other party, alliance or group has any acceptable leader who can protect Bangladesh and restore democracy, insure peace progress and prosperity of Bangladesh.
There prevails a strong belief among the political analysts and even the common people that Tarique Rahman being the son of Shahid Zaiur Rahman and Begum Khaleda Zia, will not surrender the basic and vital strategic interest and sovereignty of Bangladesh.
These are in brief, the core reasons what made and shaped Tarique Rahman the indispensable and inevitable natural helmsman of Bangladesh, whose service is badly required for years to come.*
- The writer is a journalist and researcher.
