Begums at war

Barun Das Gupta    

Hasina has not ruled out the possibility of talks with Khaleda.  But for talks to resume, she says, the BNP has first to sever its ties with the Jamaat-e-Islami. But the BNP's problem is that it is dependent on the strength of the Jamaat. Without the Jamaat cadre, it has little organizational strength of its own.

In dialectics there is such a thing as the 'struggle and unity of the opposites'. A classic example of this has come from Bangladesh. The Jatiya Party of Hussain Mohammed Ershad is a constituent of the new Awami League-led Government that took office last Sunday. It is, at the same time, the main Opposition party in Parliament. Ershad, chairman of the party, has been appointed Special Envoy to Prime Minister Hasina with the rank of a Cabinet Minister, while his wife Rausan is the Leader of the Opposition. The husband is in the Government, the wife is in opposition. A nice division of job between the duo. But it is also symbolic of the uncertainty facing post-election Bangladesh.

Bangladesh went through the motions of a general election on January 5. With the entire Opposition led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami boycotting the polls and the Awami League-led alliance candidates having been elected unopposed in as many as 153 seats in the 300 seat Parliament, the outcome of the polls was known even before they were held. In the circumstances, the alliance securing two-thirds majority (the Awami League alone bagging 232 seats) is nothing to gloat over or write home about. The voter turn-out was expectedly low. The supporters of the Opposition did not vote, while many voters supporting the ruling alliance did not turn up fearing violence.

The United States, Britain and some countries of the European Union were openly on the side of Khaleda and the Opposition. They warned Hasina against holding the elections and advised her to make it up with Khaleda. The US called for 'fresh and inclusive' elections. The official US position was clarified by a State Department spokesperson who said that 'With more than half of the seats uncontested and most of the remainder offering only token opposition, the results of the just concluded elections do not appear to credibly express the will of the Bangladeshi people.' There were dark hints that Britain could cut back aid to Bangladesh. Hasina has reacted by saying she 'will not bow down to any national and international pressure' and that her Government will complete its full term of five years.

The period leading up to the polls was marked by widespread violence. A series of hartals paralysed social and economic life for two months. Armed clashes between the supporters of the Opposition and the ruling alliance took a toll of nearly three hundred lives. Eighteen were killed on the polling day itself. Nearly a hundred polling centres, set up in school buildings, were burnt and ballot papers destroyed. Public and private property was wantonly destroyed. The Awami League workers, police personnel and the minority Hindus were the special targets of the BNP, Jamaat and Hefazat-eIslam.

There was reason to fear that post-election the Opposition would be more intransigent. But the first signs coming from the two camps after the elections suggested both sides were willing to de-escalate the tension. Khaleda said her alliance with the Jamaat was 'purely tactical' and not permanent. Jamaat said it was not at all unhappy with what Khaleda's had said on the BNP-Jamaat relationship. They thought her comment was due to 'tactical compulsions'. While it was true that in politics no alliance was permanent, the Jamaat did not think its alliance with the BNP was under an immediate threat. The BNP also announced it was lifting its indefinite blockade from the morning of Monday, January 13. In a significant gesture, the Bangladesh Government lifted the two-week long 'virtual house arrest' of the BNP leader. Khaleda's first call after stepping out into freedom was on Chinese ambassador Li Jun.

Hasina has not ruled out the possibility of talks with Khaleda. But for talks to resume, she says, the BNP has first to sever its ties with the Jamaat-e-Islami. But the BNP's problem is that it is dependent on the strength of the Jamaat. Without the Jamaat cadre, it has little organizational strength of its own. Besides, for the last one year, the relations between the two sides have become so hostile that there is no immediate prospect of a ceasefire between the Awami League and the BNP-Jamaat combine. Just before the polls, the Hasina Government hanged Abdul Qader Mollah, one of the top leaders of the Jamaat, for his role in the massacre of freedom fighters during the liberation war in 1971. The Jamaat is in no mood to forget and forgive.

Sheikh Hasina's problem is that there are quite a few in her party who are overtly or covertly supporting the Jamaat. Shahriyar Kabir, the eminent journalist, human rights activist and author, has named several AL leaders in league with the, Jamaat. Like Mamtajudin, president of Bogra district AL who, Kabir says, has turned Bogra into a virtual abhayaranya or safe zone for the AL. Freedomfighters and intellectuals of Bangladesh call the ISI of Pakistan as the godfather of Jamaat. It is the face of fundamentalist terrorism in Bangladelsh. Why does the US, engaged in a 'global war against terrorism', support such forces, vis-à-vis Hasina? (IPA)

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The views expressed in the Article above are Barun Das Gupta’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."

Courtesy: Barun Das Gupta and The Daily Excelsior: 16th January, 2014