Jalil, Bhuiyan played game

After several rounds of electoral talks in 2006, two senior leaders of Awami League and BNP assured the people of headway in breaking political impasse, but at the same time confided in foreign diplomats that they made no substantive progress.
Even immediately after beginning of the parleys, both the leaders told diplomats privately that they were pessimistic about any prospect for a rapprochement.
Several US embassy cables posted on WikiLeaks focus on the talks that began at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban on October 5, 2006 between the then BNP Secretary General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and AL General Secretary Abdul Jalil.
In a cable, then chargé d'affaires of US embassy in Dhaka Geeta Pasi on October 16, 2006, the day Bhuiyan and Jalil held their fifth round of talks, wrote both leaders had said at a press conference that they had made progress, and were “hopeful of a positive outcome”.
“Jalil claimed a consensus had been reached. The next step, they agreed, is to discuss the talks at the party level after PM Zia [Khaleda Zia] returns on October 21 and Awami League president Hasina returns on October 22 or 23,” the US diplomat wrote in her cable.
Khaleda left for Saudi Arabia on October 14 and Sheikh Hasina for the US on October 12.
The cable further said in a subsequent private conversation, Bhuiyan told them that there had in fact been no substantive progress beyond a further clarification on the parties' stance.
“Everything depends on the two leaders [Khaleda and Hasina], he [Bhuiyan] said 'and neither of them left any guidelines for concessions',” said the cable.
In a separate conversation Jalil confirmed there was no agreement on anything “concrete”, the US diplomat said.
“There continues to be a huge gap between what BNP and AL leaders say publicly and privately about the talks.”
In another cable about the fourth round of talks held on October 10, the US chargé d'affaires wrote: “The key issue of who heads the next caretaker regime, there is little sign of flexibility from either side.”
Leaders of AL and BNP privately downplayed prospects for a breakthrough, she added.
“The Awami League sees the dialogue as a pressure tactic against the ruling party….Hard-line AL Presidium member Sheikh Salim [Selim], a cousin of Hasina's, told us Jalil's upbeat public stance is designed to 'encourage' the voters and put onus on the BNP for any breakdown,” Pasi wrote.
The US diplomat said Harris Chowdhury, the then PM Khaleda Zia's political secretary, confirmed them on October 10 that Khaleda and Bhuiyan had not recently met to discuss the dialogue with AL.
He, however, stressed that “accepting the opposition demand to drop Hasan [Justice KM Hasan] is out of the question”, the cable said.
After Khaleda and Hasina returned home, Mannan and Jalil held their sixth round of talks on October 23.
Beginning amid high hopes, the Bhuiyan-Jalil dialogue was a total failure.
Also, the then US ambassador Patricia A Butenis wrote on October 27, 2006 in another cable titled "New party launched; dialogue ends; rumour abound" that formation of a new political party -- Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) by some BNP leaders -- took the BNP aback as it was already struggling with internal divisions.
“The timing of the LDP announcement will likely leave the BNP feeling more threatened as it leaves office, and more determined to see Hasan appointed as chief adviser,” Butenis wrote.
The alliances led by the two major parties were locked in a row in 2006 as the then BNP-Jamaat coalition government raised the retirement age of the Supreme Court judges to ensure Hasan become the chief adviser to the next caretaker administration that would oversee the general polls.
Justice Hasan, however, declined to be the chief adviser when the time came and the then president Iajuddin Ahmed appointed himself as chief adviser.