Many Bangladesh Nationalist Party leaders stationed in Dhaka did not visit their respective areas although party chairperson Khaleda Zia recently asked them to conduct mass contact and visit party men, especially those who were harassed or facing cases.
Khaleda gave the instruction to lay the groundwork for recasting the party and reenergising grassroots leaders and activists who were passing days in fear of arrest, repression and harassment by law enforcers and felt frustrated after the party’s failure to bring out any result from the recent marathon anti-government blockade, party leaders said.
Grassroots leaders and activists cannot communicate with the central leaders as their cell phones usually remain switched off or many use new subscriber’s identification module to avoid tracking conversation and their location, said the party insiders.
Many central leaders have not visited their areas as they are facing cases and have gone into hiding, while others have not gone to their constituencies to avoid spending money or on personal grounds, BNP leaders said.
A number of senior leaders of the BNP and its associate organisations were seen to attend various programmes and iftar parties in the capital during Ramadan.
BNP spokesman Asaduzzaman Ripon on July 15 told New Age that he did not monitor the matter.
He said that many leaders, who were facing criminal cases, failed to visit their areas as they could not secure bail.
Khaleda at an emergency meeting with her party’s senior leaders at her Gulshan office on July 6 instructed the central leaders of the BNP and its associate bodies to go to their respective areas in Ramadan to conduct mass contacts.
She also asked them to interact with the party grassroots leaders and activists and stand beside the party men who were repressed, accused in ‘false’ cases, jailed or facing crisis under the present ‘autocratic’ and ‘undemocratic’ rule.
BNP standing committee members, vice-chairmen, party chairperson’s advisory council members and joint secretaries general stationed in Dhaka attended the meeting.
Khaleda held the meeting after a long gap since January 5 when she called countrywide non-stop road-rail-waterways blockade.
Khaleda on different occasions recently stated that BNP and its front and associate organisations would be reorganised soon.
The party’s move to recast the organisation might be hampered following absence of the central leaders from their areas and lack of interaction with the field level leaders and activists, the party leaders said.
New Age correspondent in Rajshahi, Sylhet, Noakhali, Feni, Lakshmipur, Jaipurhat, Comilla, Sirajganj and Natore reported that no BNP central leaders belonged to the districts were visible in their respective areas in recent days. Some of them went into hiding and some others were ill. Many leaders were not seen in their constituencies for the past six months.
Some leaders, however, went to their areas to attend iftar parties organised by local units.
BNP joint secretary general Mohammad Shahjahan, also the Noakhali district BNP president, said that he went to Noakhali to attend an iftar party organised by the district unit and to interact with the party leaders and activists.
Although some BNP leaders went to their respective constituencies during or after Eid-ul-Fitr, they confined themselves to limited activities of interaction with party men, party sources said.
BNP standing committee member Mahbubur Rahman said that it was imperative that party leaders would go to respective areas voluntarily to meet people and stand beside the party’s field level leaders and activists.
He, however, said that he could not go to his home district as his mother was sick and was undergoing treatment in Dhaka.
Source: New Age
