Amid the ongoing tussle of our politicians over the nature of the next polls time government, a serious political issue which is frequently being reported and commented on in the print and electronic media, very few of us ponder over what, once a consensus is reached on this transitional government, could be the major issues for our politicians to argue about, refute and convince the voters with to win the much coveted next national election. A close analysis shows that some extraneous elements have dominated the electoral politics of Bangladesh.
The recently concluded five city corporation elections are the prime example of this.  There were reports that BNP and Hefajat men successfully used religion as a major campaign tool in Gazipur in the same way as they did against the ruling Awami League-backed mayoral candidates ahead of the Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal and Sylhet city corporation elections in June 15 this year.
This highlights a vital but disturbing issue in our national electoral politics. However, this tendency to depend on extraneous elements to gain public support in the election is not new.
One can still remember what Awami League and the Sector Commanders' Forum did ahead of the 2008 general election to garner popular support against BNP and Jamaat. It clicked then and a landslide victory for Awami League in that election only intensified that 'propaganda.' But a number of scandals and corruption charges along with many other factors, especially the dealing with Jamaat-Shibir and Hefajat movement, have started overshadowing the previously dominant discourse of anti-liberation forces, creating a completely new scenario. The table has been turned by the BNP-backed 18-party alliance through the agency of an alternative discourse, that of religion, this time.
This article does address the question whether people belonging to 18-party-alliance are all 'anti-liberation forces' or whether the 14-party-alliance adherents are all 'atheist and infidels.' This is because there are some questions in our life that we had better never ask. Consider the case of a married man having difficulties in reconciling his belligerent wife with an equally bellicose mother, with each expecting him to side with her. What can that hapless man do, being faced with the problematic question of choosing one over the other? For me, the ideal solution would be not to raise a question like that altogether and rather concentrate on the more substantive familial issues. Making a single choice would only aggravate the situation.
In recent times, a similar situation has prevailed in our national life. This sort of question was repeatedly asked and many of us allied with one option or the other, and what resulted was a nightmarish experience on the street. While Gonojagoron Moncho appealed to our sense of patriotism, Hefajat-e-Islam drew our attention to the religious status we have.
But do these two issues really matter when it comes to the development of our nation? This is a very sensitive question to ask as the majority of Bangladeshis are born and brought up with one religious status or the other. They are also taught to cultivate patriotism and to show respect to the Liberation War heroes and victims. While these two options are significant in their own terms, the attempt at persuading us to choose one of the two does not really make sense. I know the case of a freedom fighter who fought bravely in 1971 with a small Quran in his pocket all the time. But we also know some persons who opposed the division of Pakistan for the same religious cause.
But do these issues of religion and Liberation War spirit actually play any role in bringing about positive social and infrastructural changes in our homeland? The answer, for me, is an emphatic and unqualified 'no.'
When it comes to the physical hard realities of life, the usually crucial questions of religion and Liberation War do not bring us any tangible results. But the tendency in electoral politics in recent years disregarded the issue and instead concentrated on these 'extraneous' elements to gain popular mandate. While more innovative techniques and strategies for changing Bangladesh for the better could have been the mechanism for public support, all political parties' priorities have been wrongly placed on some otherwise significant issues of religion and Liberation War.
What this situation shows is a kind of bankruptcy in our national politics, a symptom one cannot escape noticing even in the nation's highest law-making body, the Jatiya Sangshad, a place normally supposed to be used for dialogues and debates on the major policy issues of the country's present and future. Unfortunately though, what could have been a platform for healthy debates on the current issues between the government and the opposition has frequently turned into pandemonium with lawmakers from both the camps busy badmouthing and assassinating characters of the nation's veteran politicians.
In the heated debate on the nation's past, we have forgotten the present; and in forgetting the present, we have become oblivious of our future as well. That's why our politicians can manipulate the people's voting power by drawing their attention to not so significant issues, with the main questions of national development remaining unasked.
In the recently held five city corporation elections, religion had its sway, and with national election just a few months ahead, one cannot ignore it. Politics has taken a predictable path in the wrong direction as competing discourses are drawing our attention, keeping the more substantive issues untouched. Wrong questions have been asked and people have died. Crucial issues have not been asked and people are dying even now—in frequent road accidents, fires and building collapse. Political bankruptcy has descended on us.
The politicians are to be blamed for this. But a fair portion of the blame must also fall on the shoulders of the people who allowed the politicians to manipulate their sensibilities with no substantial gains. The remedy must also come from them as they are the stakeholders and main actors.
It is high time the people in general forced the politician to ask the right questions, especially before the next general election. For this, the civil society, conscious citizens, and the media people have to shoulder the responsibilities of promoting appropriate discourses to make the right areas the electoral political issues, and to make the aspiring political parties committed to addressing more pressing problems of the nation. Only then we can hope to radically change the face of our country.

The writer is Assistant Professor and Coordinator, Department of English, Northern University Bangladesh. E-mail: [email protected]