AHMEDE HUSSAIN
Dhaka: In a telephone conversation leaked on the social media ousted Bangladeshi dictator and former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged one of her party leaders stationed in Bangladesh to take to the streets Sunday. The leaked audio has been independently verified.
For Hasina and her party, the Awami League, 10 November is an important date as it marks the martyrdom of Noor Hossain, who died by police fire 37 years ago while protesting General Hussain Muhammad Ershad’s autocratic regime. Before he was shot, Noor, an Awami League activist, painted slogans in white on his body—“down with autocracy” on his chest, and “let democracy be free” on his back.
Hossain later became an icon for freedom and democracy, but his party, on several occasions, has joined hands with General Ershad’s Jatiya Party. In fact, in the 15 years of Hasina’s rule, Jatiya Party played the role of an obedient opposition by participating in allegedly one rigged general election after another under her watch.
During Hasina’s last term in office, the Noor Hossain Day, as it is famously called, has been a muted affair. But now the Awami League wants to take full advantage of the historic day to hold processions in the country, something the party has failed to do in the past three months.
During this procession, Hasina has urged her supporters to carry large photographs of Donald Trump, the newly elected President of the United States, and also asked her party members to ensure that any attack on Trump’s photo is recorded on video and well documented. She has claimed that she has ‘links’ with the President-elect.
And this has put Muhammad Yunus-led interim government in a political quandary. The Awami League is a political party registered with the Election Commission. Is the party banned? Does it face some kind of suspension? If not, why will they not be allowed to hold rallies?
The interim government has banned Chhatra League, the Awami League’s student wing, but its Law Affairs Adviser (Minister) Asif Nazrul reportedly said, “Our constitution gives us the right to organise political parties. The Awami League led the struggle for freedom and contributed to various democratic movements. What it did in the last 15 years goes against its tradition and the spirit of the Liberation War.”
The country’s high court has also summarily rejected a writ petition seeking a ban on the Awami League and cancellation of its registration with the Election Commission. Even the Awami League’s major rivals—the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami—do not want see the party’s activities being declared illegal.
“Unlike Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League, we don’t believe in the politics of banning a political party to settle scores,” Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) secretary-general Mirza Fakrul Islam Alamgir told the PTI. This comes as a surprise since hundreds of BNP activists are alleged to have been jailed or killed by the Hasina regime.
Perhaps, the most surprising is the Jamaat’s reaction. The party was banned towards the end of Hasina’s rule, and most of its top leadership were hanged for war crimes committed during Bangladesh’s Liberation War in 1971. Yet the party chief Shafiqur Rahman has said that his party is against any ban on the Awami League. “We have been the worst sufferers of political atrocities committed by the Awami League regime. We were banned by them. But we think that by banning someone, you can’t wipe out a political party or its ideology. We are a classic example of it, he told PTI.
There is a reason why the BNP and Jamaat are against the outlawing of the Awami League. The vacuum created by such a move could lead to the emergence of a new political settlement, giving rise to a political force that the old parties would struggle to contain or manage.
There has been growing resentment against both BNP and Jamaat’s way of politics in Bangladesh, especially among the younger generation. The two parties are worried about the so-called “minus-two solution”, a plan made in 2007 by some in the civil society to eliminate both the Awami League and the BNP in the name of reforming the parties.
‘No way this fascist party will be allowed to hold protests’
Legally, the Awami League can hold rallies like the way the BNP did last Friday. But the government appeared to have decided to make the Awami League an exception.
In a social media post Saturday, Muhammad Yunus’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam wrote that “the Awami League in its current form is a fascist party” and reiterated that there was no way the party would be allowed to hold protests in Bangladesh, adding that “anyone who would try to hold rally, gathering and processions by taking orders from the mass murderer and dictator Sheikh Hasina will face full force of the law enforcing agencies. The Interim Government won’t tolerate any violence or any attempt to break law and order situation in the country (sic)”.
The government has not banned the Awami League, and many feel if the party isn’t banned, it should be allowed to hold rallies.
source : The Print