A hybrid election

Opinion

Professor M Shahiduzzaman, a professor of international relations at Dhaka University and a security analyst, is known to be a fierce anti-India figure. A few days ago, he was criticized for calling on the Bangladesh government to sign a nuclear bomb deal with Pakistan. Recently, he made another scathing comment. He said that as long as Zia was alive, Jamaat-e-Islami was the pillar of BNP politics.

He also analyzed with logic why he said what he said.

BNP founder Major General Ziaur Rahman was one of the commanders of Bangladesh’s independence struggle. He was the sector commander of 1 of the 11 sectors. Again, 3 forces were formed with the soldiers of these 11 sectors. One of them was named Z Force after him. The political party he formed by seizing power through a military coup and sitting in the cantonment is today’s BNP.

Zia, who grew up in West Pakistan, could not speak Bengali well. He did not have much contact with the common people. Therefore, public support was a big concern for him. He knew that it was impossible for him to get the votes of people who supported the liberation war by standing on the corpse of Bangabandhu. He attracted the anti-liberation Muslim League, Jamaat and the strongly anti-India Chinese left. BNP was established under their leadership.

The Bangladesh government revoked the citizenship of 42 political figures, including Jamaat chief Ghulam Azam, on April 18, 1973, for their involvement in subversive activities during the war of independence, including opposition to independence. After the war of liberation, Ghulam Azam fled to Saudi Arabia via Pakistan. He returned to the country in 1978 during the Ziaur Rahman regime. With it, Jamaat was allowed to engage in politics. But neither Zia nor Ershad dared to return his citizenship. In 1994, Ziaur Rahman’s wife Khaleda Zia returned Ghulam Azam’s citizenship.

Zia appointed the son of such a controversial anti-national as an officer in the army in 1979. Khaleda Zia later promoted him to the rank of brigadier. Khaleda made two self-confessed anti-liberation leaders of Jamaat ministers. In short, BNP has nurtured and nurtured this black snake called Jamaat. They were in a political front for at least 25 years.

Today, Abdullahil Aman Azmi, the son of Ghulam Azam, is the bridge between the military and civilian administration. Even the army chief bows to him. He is now the biggest actor in the Ainaghar drama.

In short, Jamaat and BNP are essentially the same entity in Bangladeshi politics. They will exist as long as the Awami League exists. Their existence is mainly revealed not in their own achievements, but in the failures of the Awami League.

Interestingly, these two fraternal organizations are facing each other in the election field today. One group is attacking the other verbally. The scene seems quite exciting to the people of Bangladesh. Those who were deeply in love yesterday, today they are each other’s enemies.

Many say that this is actually a show of people. There has been an internal compromise between them. But some events again testify to the contrary. The biggest sign of the rise of Jamaat after August 5, 2024 is considered to be the landslide victory of Jamaat’s affiliate Chhatra Shibir in the student parliament at Dhaka University.

It is said that Shibir’s victory was achieved with the direct support of the university administration. The chief executive of that university, i.e. the vice-chancellor, announced his resignation before the interim government left. Meanwhile, the police have arrested the Thakurgaon Jamaat chief from Syedpur airport with 50 lakh taka. Jamaat leaders and activists are being caught by BNP leaders and activists while distributing money in various places. As a result, the course of events is not going well.

Anyway, there can be three outcomes in tomorrow’s election. 1. Absolute victory of BNP, 2. Absolute victory of Jamaat, 3. Coalition government. But whatever the outcome, the outcome is the same: the rise of the extreme right in Bangladesh. The influence of Wahhabism, i.e. Pakistan-Saudi Arabia, will increase in Bangladesh. Bangladesh will become more dangerous for the minority Hindus.

Why am I saying this? Despite the immense popularity of BNP, the party is basically an organization without a purpose. They came to power on the back of cheap popularity. They came to power twice before by raising slogans of anti-India. Of course, when they came to power, they treated India with great respect. This time, Jamaat and its shadow organization NCP had already taken over the field of anti-India before BNP. As a result, BNP had to raise the dust of the Liberation War. But they showed that they do not ‘own’ the Liberation War when they were in power in 2001-2006.

The main strength of BNP is their organization that is spread at the village union level. If you ask the workers of this organization why they are part of the party? They will only say one thing, Shahid Zia’s ideology. They will not be able to say what Shahid Zia’s ideology is.

They actually form groups to extort freely. Starting from the village market and grabbing private land – this is their goal. However, people from another big party, the Awami League, do politics for the same purpose. The political violence that started after the change of direction in Bangladesh is basically to seize this extortion ground. In this case, Jamaat is a little behind. Because their organization is not so widespread.

If BNP comes to power, these extortionists will jump in with full force. It will be impossible for inexperienced politicians like Tarique Zia to control them.

And if Jamaat somehow comes to power, they will first try to break this chain of extortion. Because their leaders and activists do not have to extort. They have an ideological basis. They want to form a government like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. For that, they have built a huge economic power with Middle Eastern money for the last 50 years. Although their workers are few, they are dedicated. Because they are religiously motivated, along with economic and social security.

If this chain of extortion is broken, the organization called BNP will disappear on its own. They have no ideological basis that would keep anyone attached to the party. As a result, if this extortion network is exposed, there will be a civil war in the country.

And if a coalition is formed, riots will break out across the country over the division between the two parties.

Whatever the outcome, the outcome is instability. In this case, the Awami League is a little different. This party has the manifesto and manpower to ideologically stop Jamaat. On the other hand, they also have the extortionists to stop the extortionists of the BNP. In other words, they have players on two fronts.

Bangladeshi politics is actually divided into two camps. On one side is the Awami League. On the other side are the anti-Awami League. Therefore, this election can be called bisexual. People from one camp (read gender) are busy in sexual activities by dressing up as different genders. They think that the whole world is being charmed by their sexual scenes. But what is actually happening is just a tasteless sexual entertainment. No one is interested in it.

-Harinarayan Das