BNP and Bashundhara Media : Who’s Wagging Whom?

Staff Correspondent: Dhaka, October 21, 2026.

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There are various rumors in the media about whether Bashundhara has fallen into the trap of the BNP government or whether the BNP government has fallen into the trap of Bashundhara. Razakar Sakachau, who was convicted of war crimes, made a statement to satirize BNP politics and the internal and top leadership of his own party,

“Before, the dog used to wag its tail, but now the dog wags its tail”

Who is waggin’ who, and which is the tail and which is the dog, is a mystery currently being discussed at all levels in the media community.

 

Barrister Gias Uddin Rimon: London to PM Office via Bashundhara

Barrister Gias Uddin Rimon, currently the Prime Minister’s Special Assistant with the rank of Secretary, became the DMD of Bashundhara Media as Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s representative. In London, Barrister Rimon was known as a very close person to Tarique Rahman. Rimon, who was appointed as the Deputy Managing Director of Bashundhara on the recommendation of Tarique Rahman during the interim government in April 2025, was associated with Shibir politics during his studies at Dhaka University, and has a history of receiving good media from the then Chhatra Dal leaders.

In early 2025, Rimon was given the responsibility of East West Media PLC, the mother company of Bashundhara’s seven media outlets. The common saying about Rimon in the media circles is that

“Limon has kept the thread to himself by destroying Bashundhara’s media and handing over responsibility to his loyalists. Currently, with the power of the Prime Minister’s special assistant, Rimon, who has become the godfather of Bashundhara Media and other media, is strategically giving opportunities to the secret camp in the Bangladeshi media.”

According to the investigation in the journalist community, Rimon was associated with Shibir politics while he was a student at Dhaka University. Because of this, Rimon was physically abused by Chhatra Dal workers while he was on campus. Then, to survive, he started journalism as a university correspondent for the daily Inquilab. At that time, Inquilab did not accept anyone except people from Shibir or religious politics. After that, during the 2001-2006 BNP regime, he also got a job in the police in the quota of Hawa Bhaban, and also served as the AC of Tejgaon zone.

 

Media takeover: BNP in name, Shibir in action

Recently, in the name of freeing Bashundhara Media from Jamaat, 40 BNP supporters and dedicated old neutral journalists from Bangladesh Pratidin, Bashundhara’s biggest tool, were fired. Their crime is that they are against the secret camp. But Rimon fired them by tagging them with Jamaat. However, none of those fired ever did Jamaat politics. Rather, they did anti-Jamaat politics during their student life. However, most of those fired are supporters of BNP politics.

It is learnt that many Jamaat activists, including Shibir leader and Naya Diganta journalist Abul Kalam, are still working at Bangladesh Pratidin. But neutral and BNP-supporting journalists are being chased away, the main driver behind which is the “media godfather” and currently the Prime Minister’s Special Assistant with the rank of Secretary, Barrister Gias Uddin Rimon.

According to Bashundhara journalists, Abul Kalam was once very vocal on Facebook against Bashundhara MD Anvir over the Munia murder. He was given a job as a special correspondent at Bangladesh Pratidin to manage him. Kalam never worked at Bangladesh Pratidin. He works at Naya Diganta, but receives a salary from Bangladesh Pratidin every month without doing any work.

Bashundhara Media Group’s top barrister Rimon

After August 5, Limon, who came into the scene with force, became DMD of Bashundhara’s East West Media Group at the beginning of 2025. Soon after, the New Delhi and Kolkata representatives of Bangladesh Pratidin were retained, while the London and US representatives were also dropped. At the same time, Quader Gani was removed and attached to the office of Chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, making him a powerless man. Within a short time, Yasin Pavel, the executive director of East West Media, who had good relations with the NCP, resigned from his job. At that time, the incident of Rimon’s women’s scandal, which was rampant in Bashundhara Media Group, was also heard in the media para. From various sources, it is known about two presenters named Jannatul Sadia and Nuzhat Afrin.

Media partisanship or departisanship?

Now the question arises, whose trap has Bashundhara fallen into? The trap of destroying Bangladesh every day by tagging its old, tested workers with the Jamaat tag, or has it adopted a strategy of luring the government into a new trap? Or is someone else actually waiting to fall into the trap?

The names of the editors of Bashundhara Media’s Bangladesh Pratidin, Kaler Kantho, BanglaNews, News Twenty-Four Television, T Sports and Radio Capital are now unknown to the general public, let alone many who have been working in the journalism profession for a long time. Because, they are so unknown that no one in the media community knows them. There are also various discussions in the media community about the qualifications to be an editor.

Since its inception, Bashundhara Media has been working for the government whenever there is a government. For 18 months, it has written special articles on the front page praising Yunus almost every day. After Yunus’ departure, it is again writing against Yunus. Now, Bashundhara Media is once again praising Tarique Rahman.

Recruitment of secret organization workers under the BNP identity

Recently, Bashundhara has appointed some amateur former secret Shibir activists to top positions in the organizations to run the media, open various cases, open frozen bank accounts, and praise the government. On behalf of the BNP, Barrister Rimon has appointed his one-time friend Shibir activist Lotan Ekram (who was once the telephone operator of Dainik Bangla), Afazuddin Biplob, and Masud Karim to top positions in Bangladesh Pratidin.

Shamsul Haque Russell, a close associate of former editor of Bangladesh Pratidin Nayeem Nizam, gained influence in Bangladesh Pratidin after August 5 by defaming his uncle BNP leader Nabi. Investigations revealed that Russell was the mastermind behind the layoffs of old employees.

The question in the media para is whether to destroy Bangladesh Pratidin and Bashundhara Media with secret Shibir activists, or to establish Shibir activists as secret journalists in Bashundhara Media by arranging BNP people? There is unrest in the media para of Bashundhara House regarding this.

 

Shibir’s secret politics by tarnishing BNP’s name

BNP came to power and started partisanizing the media, but investigations revealed that inexperienced and unqualified people from the underground party are actually being hired as journalists in media houses by tarnishing the name of BNP. Now, the underground party’s associates are controlling the media by tarnishing the name of BNP, and one by one, BNP-supported and neutral journalists are being fired from the media.

BD Digest spoke to some Bangladesh Pratidin workers. One worker said that Bashundhara Media is now under the control of the secret camp. Another said, “The members of the camp have adopted the strategy of posing as BNP-friendly journalists. Starting from Tarique Rahman, they are consolidating their position in the media by reporting on behalf of the BNP, and through the “media godfather” Barrister Rimon and his associates, they are taking control of the media by removing all obstacles from within.

The laid-off pro-BNP journalists are also waiting to see who benefits in the end, BNP or Bashundhara wagging the tail of the dog? Or is the secret camp wagging the dog?