BNP’s Founding Anniversary: No direction out of slump

With its ailing Chairperson Khaleda Zia cooped up in her house away from all political activities and acting chairman Tarique Rahman abroad, the BNP is struggling to find its way back to a strong political footing.

The party is actually passing the toughest time since its inception four decades ago.

Some of its leaders said the absence of the two top leaders in active party politics is the main barrier to overcoming the organisational weaknesses and inertia and making a turnaround. Many others, however, blame what they say is the government's strategy to throttle the opposition party.

Amid these bleak circumstances, the BNP is observing its 43rd founding anniversary today.

Al Masud Hasanuzzaman, professor of Government and Politics at Jahangirnagar University, said the party has long been  in a slump mainly due to its leadership crisis and failure to work many issues of public interest in its favour.

"It seems it has failed to play its role as a responsible political party in mobilising public opinions. Also, there is no democracy in its organisational structure," he observed.

Nurul Amin Bepari, former chairman of Dhaka University's political science department, however, would not put it all down to the party itself.

He said when an "authoritarian" government is in power and it does not give any space to the opposition, it's no wonder the BNP's activities are limited to seminars and wreath-laying programmes.

The party was founded on September 1, 1978, by late president Ziaur Rahman with a 19-point programme designed to build a "self-reliant" Bangladesh.

Since then, it formed government four times -- once under the leadership of its founder Ziaur Rahman and thrice under the leadership of his widow Khaleda Zia -- and was in opposition twice. It boycotted the January 5, 2014 election but participated in the 2018 election with Khaleda in jail and got only five seats.

Khaleda landed in jail on February 8, 2017 after being sentenced to five years' imprisonment by a special court in Dhaka in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case. On October 30 the following year, the High Court raised her punishment to 10 years after dismissing her appeal in the case.

The former prime minister was convicted by another special court in Dhaka in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case on October 29, 2018. She was sentenced to seven years' rigorous imprisonment by the court.

She was released from custody for six months on March 25 last year, just a day before the government announced a general holiday to contain Covid-19 transmission.

The government stayed her conviction for six months and freed her on humanitarian grounds considering her age on two conditions: she will not leave the country and will take treatment at home.

Since then, Khaleda has been staying at her house, away from political activities. With Khaleda in such situation, Tarique, who has been staying in London since 2008, is instructing the leaders about how the party should be run.

However, some political analysts and many of the party's rank and file believe an active presence of the mother-son duo would have made a huge difference and steered the party out of its present sorry state.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir denies there is any leadership crisis. He alleges it's rather a propaganda by the government machineries.

"More than five lakh cases were filed against 35 lakh party leaders and activists, 500 were victims of enforced disappearance and more than a thousand were killed. Though there is no space for any political activities, BNP is on the streets, fighting for restoring democracy," he added.

Party's top brass said it is not the BNP rather the whole country is in a deep crisis as all the state machineries are politicised.

They said from the civil administration to political parties to the media, all are under severe pressure as the government is "authoritarian" in nature.

Abdul Moyeen Khan, party's standing committee member, said the BNP was established when the people strongly felt that democracy must be revived in Bangladesh, a country liberated through a bloody struggle with the sole objective of creating a democratic nation.

He said the party is based on Bangladeshi nationalism that everyone irrespective of race, religion and class embraced.

"The appeal of the BNP persists till today as it was founded by no other than  Ziaur Rahman, who declared our independence. Now after 43 years, it is also time for the BNP to take stock (of the situation), since the democracy-loving people still look to the BNP as an organisation that can see off the current challenge and once again re-establish democracy in this country."