Opinion
Generally, the general impression we have about the children of prominent politicians in Bangladesh is that they are born with a bit more ‘silver spoon’ in their mouths than others based on the hard work or achievements of the previous generation and become doctors or engineers while studying abroad. Sometimes they also become politicians. There is not much evidence that they have much to do with literature or philosophy.
I was shocked to see a video clip of a recent speech by British MP Tulip Siddiqui on WhatsApp sent by an activist friend recently! The current interim government of Bangladesh has been accusing Tulip of involvement in the Rooppur Nuclear Power Project and taking millions of dollars in bribes since last August, but the Russian government – Vladimir Putin himself – has dismissed those allegations. Tulip even resigned at that time over transparency issues.
Since then, he has returned to his former glory. He invited Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the head of the current interim government of Bangladesh, to tea in the House of Commons during his visit to Britain last June so that they could discuss the baseless allegations against him face to face. Naturally, the other side did not see the moral clarity of accepting his invitation to drink tea. However, when the same case was revived, Tulip said in a recent interview that he and his lawyer tried in various ways and contacted the Bangladeshi authorities who had brought the charges against him a lot, but did not get a response. However, the case against him is upheld. The point where the frustrated Tulip said, “I feel like I am going through a Kafkaesque nightmare!” I was moved. Wow, this is a politician who loves literature! It seemed that even being a homosexual, I am going to fall in love with Tulip. Who else reads literature these days?
For the readers of BD Digest, let’s go back a little in a limited way. Last year or December 2024, Tulip Siddiqui, the granddaughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the MP elected from Hampstead and Highgate constituencies in the British Parliament’s ‘House of Commons’ and the Economic Secretary to the British Finance Minister, was accused by the Bangladesh ‘Corruption Commission’ of accepting a bribe of $ 3.9 billion from Russia in 2013 for her involvement in the Rooppur Nuclear Power Project. In light of the allegations, Tulip resigned from that post, which she served as a minister from July 9, 2024 to January 14, 2025. It is worth noting that she has been elected as an MP from Hampstead and Highgate constituencies since 2015. However, the Russian government categorically dismissed the allegations of the Bangladesh ‘Corruption Commission’. Then, citing the British newspaper ‘ The Guardian ‘ , The Daily Star of June 8 published Tulip’s open invitation to Dr. Yunus, the interim head of the government of Bangladesh and Nobel laureate, for tea.
“I have no property or business in Bangladesh. Although I love this country with all my heart, I was not born here, I do not live here, nor did I build my career here,” Tulip said.
“Even though I tried to clarify my position with the ACC again, they refused to contact my lawyers in London and kept sending letters to random areas in Dhaka. Every step of this shadow investigation has been reported in the media, yet no contact has been made with my legal team.”
After Sheikh Hasina’s so-called death sentence on November 17, Tulip Siddiqui, along with Sajeeb Wazed Joy, Saema Wazed Putul, Redwan Mujib Siddiqui and Bobby, were accused of corruption in the Pursabachal plot and were given varying degrees of imprisonment for influencing all members of the Bangabandhu family to get plots for their family members. In this context, when Tulip, facing questions from journalists again, at one point said that she was in a ‘Kafkaesque judicial process,’ the literary-minded politician drew attention in a different way.
A Bangladeshi court has issued a two-year sentence in absentia to British MP Tulip Siddique, sparking widespread international media reaction.
Reports published in various international media outlets, including Sky News, Reuters, The Guardian, BBC, The Standard, Al-Jazeera, and others, have all stated in the same tone that the verdict is highly controversial, procedurally questionable, and politically motivated.
Reuters reported that a Bangladeshi court has sentenced a British MP in absentia, but many questions remain about the nature of the case, the basis of the charges and the clarity of the evidence.
Tulip Siddique said, “This entire process was flawed and ridiculous from start to finish.”
He also said that he or his lawyers were not contacted during the entire process; neither the chargesheet nor the copy of the complaint, nor any message, reached his lawyers. Source: (https://bddigest.news/news/38806/.
Tulip, born in London in 1982, is the daughter of Shafiq Ahmed Siddiqui, a former professor at Dhaka University, and Sheikh Rehana. She settled in Hampstead, UK, with her family at the age of 15. She studied at Scholastica, Royal School, Hampstead, and Mill Hill School in Dhaka. She completed her under-graduation in English Literature from University College London, and obtained a master’s degree from King’s College, and in September 2011, she obtained a second master’s degree in Politics, Policy, and Government.
Tulip joined the Labour Party at the age of sixteen. Her father had suffered a stroke and was paralysed for five years; the care he received on the National Health Service was the reason she joined the Labour Party. Former Labour minister Barbara Castle described her political icon as her mother Sheikh Rehana and aunt Sheikh Hasina as “two very strong feminists”.
Tulip became the first Bangladeshi councillor to be elected to Camden Council in the 2010 local government elections, where she served as a cabinet member in the Ministry of Culture and Communities until May 2014.
Tulip won the 2015 general election in the ‘Hampstead and Kilburn’ constituency with 44.4 per cent of the vote. He won the same constituency in 2017 with 59 per cent of the vote and won again in 2019. When the constituency was gazetted as ‘Hampstead and Highgate’ in 2024, he won from here with 48.3 per cent of the vote.
He has spoken out in the British Parliament on the issue of Syrian refugees and written to the then British Prime Minister David Cameron on the issue, spoken out against the Israeli attack on Gaza and the Saudi attack on Yemen, and called for the inclusion of child labour, equal pay and disability. In 2017, he strongly advocated for the employment of workers of different ethnicities in the workplace. In 2015, his first speech in Parliament was considered one of the seven best parliamentary speeches in a poll conducted by the ‘BBC’. In October 2016, he was appointed as the ‘Shadow Minister of Labour’ in the Labour Party’s ‘Shadow Cabinet’ as an opposition party in Parliament.
After marrying Christian Percy in 2013, she appeared in the House of Commons to vote on Brexit just two days before the birth of her son in 2019. However, her first daughter was born in 2016.
Tulip, who has never denied her Muslim identity, considers her “cultural identity more important than her religious identity.” Tulip, who attends various events at synagogues or Jewish places of worship, once faced questioning by UK Border Control at the UK border after returning from a trip because her and her daughter’s passports had different surnames until her partner arrived. After this incident, she wrote to the UK Home Office to write both the father’s and mother’s names on the children’s passports.
The Trial by Fire of the Persian Prince Siavash and the Kurdish Tulip
In the Iranian poet Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, when Prince Siyabash did not respond to the love proposal of his young stepmother Rudaba, the angry Sudabeh instead accused her older groom, King Kaykayus, of ‘attempted rape’ against him. The angry father invited his son to a fiery ordeal to prove his innocence. Like the Indian Sita (in Uttar Pradesh, ‘Sita’ is called ‘Siya’), the Iranian Prince Siyabash jumped into the fire and emerged unharmed, even with his white clothes and horse. The old and weak-minded king did not punish his young wife, but instead forced Siyabash to leave his familiar homeland. He took refuge in Turan and married the Turanian princess Farangis, but he made enemies even in the court of the Turanian king. One night, in the darkness of the night, he was killed by assassins while he was sleeping in his bed. In mourning for the innocent Siyabash, even today, the bright red ‘Kurdish tulip’ that blooms in spring in Iran is called ‘Khune Asiyabush’ (Siyabash’s blood).
This myth seems to be the identity of the innocent people who are often punished for no fault of their own.
Yet the resistant tulip spreads its petals again!
– Shweta Irina
https://stapravda.ru/20221228/reyting_samyh_populyarnyh_hostingov_v_rossii_196445.html, рейтинг хостингов России подтверждает, что выбор надежного провайдера важен для бизнеса.