AL doesn't own Olama League or its demand

The Awami League does not own the Olama League's demand for a ban on Pahela Baishakh celebrations, say two central leaders of the ruling party. 

The party has already requested the commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police to take stern action against the Olama League for "misusing its name", said AL's Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif yesterday.

"We don't own the organisation [Olama League]. Awami League does not believe in religious bigotry," Hanif told The Daily Star.

Terming the Bangla New Year festival haram (forbidden in Islam), the Olama League made the demand from a human chain in the capital on Saturday.

It also urged the government to cancel the festival bonus for Pahela Baishakh, saying the allowance should be provided to Muslims on the occasion of Eid-e-Miladunnabi.

The organisation went as far as to demand resignation of the chief justice saying, “A Hindu chief justice in a country where 98 percent people are Muslims is an assault on the sentiment of religious Muslims.”

Claiming to be an AL-affiliated organisation all along, the Olama League has been using a floor of the AL central office on Bangabandhu Avenue for many years.

Directly going against the principles of the secularist Awami League, it has been making several other demands, including cancellation of national education policy.

Leaders of the Olama League say the participation of senior AL leaders in their programmes is a proof of its affiliation with the ruling party.

Abdus Sobhan Golap, office secretary of the AL, however, yesterday said the Olama League is not a front body of the party or a like-minded organisation.

So the party does not own the demands of the organisation, he added.

About the Olama League using a floor of the AL central office, Golap said he was not aware of it and he would look into the matter.

Hanif, however, said the Olama League has no office at the AL headquarters on Bangabandhu Avenue.

The AL leader added he has urged the DMP not to allow any rally or procession of Olama League or any organisation which use the name of Awami League but has no link to the party.

About the AL's request to the DMP, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said he heard of it.

"The Awami League has provided the names of its front bodies and like-minded organisations and made verbal request for action so that none except those organisations can use the name of the party," he told The Daily Star.

In a press release yesterday, the Jangibad O Samprodaikota Protirodh Morcha, a platform against communalism and militancy, said Olama League identifying itself as the AL's front organisation is spreading propaganda against the sprit of Liberation War and Bangalee culture.

The Morcha, led by eminent journalist Abed Khan, will organise a rally at Bakultala of the Fine Arts Institute of Dhaka University at 4:00pm today, demanding a ban on Olama League.