Amid a grand festive mood the 20th National Council of the ruling 67-yeal-old Awami League (AL) concluded last week in Dhaka.. The AL has re-elected unopposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as President, while Obaidul Quader, the road transport minister, was also elected unopposed the new general secretary (GS). The ruling party chose the new leadership for the next three years.
Ex-chief of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, author of nine books and and a former assistant editor of the newspaper of the Daily Banglar Bani for a long time, Mr. Quader played an active role during the Six point movement in 1966 and Eleven-Point Movement in 1969. He joined the Liberation War as the commander of Companigonj Thana Mujib Forces.
The councillors then went on to nominate the Presidium members. Outgoing general secretary Syed Ashraf has been inducted into the policymaking body. The new inclusions are Nurul Islam Nahid, Abdur Razzak, Abdul Mannan Khan, Faruk Khan, Ramesh Chandra Sen and Pijush Bhattacharya.
Proving his mettle and unwavering determination when the military-installed Caretaker regime sought to punish politicians and banish Hasina and BNP chief Khaleda Zia from politics, the immediate past Syed Ashraful Islam took the reins of the party in one of its most difficult times as acting secretary general in 2007.
Customarily a political party’s founding father, dead or alive, is remembered with due veneration by paying glowing tributes to him, but for some four decades Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani (1880-1976), the founder President of Awami League (AL), was either mentioned with studied indifference of sorts or as perfunctory courtesy. However, the 20th council was an exception in that the AL chief Sheikh Hasina mentioned Maulana Bhashani during her speech as the first president of the party.
Those who are conscious of our national historical context of necessity shall have to study the biography of Maulana Bhashani. On June 23, 1949 a new political party, the AL, the first opposition political party of the time, came into being at Gopibagh Rose Garden in Dhaka with Maulana Bhashani as its President, Shamsul Hoque of Tangail as general secretary and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as Joint Secretary.
With Yar Mohammad Khan as its Treasurer, Ataur Rahman Khan, Sakhawat Hossain, Abdus Salam Khan, Ali Amjad Khan and Ali Ahmad Khan as Vice Presidents. Chaired by Bhashani, the new party held public meetings on June 23 and October 11, 1949 at Armanitola in Dhaka. After a few months Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy joined the paty. While leading a procession of hunger strikers to protest against to protest against the famine-like situation prevailing in the province towards the secretariat, Bhashani and many other leaders were imprisoned. As his health deteriorated attributable to his protracted hunger-strike, Bhashani was released from jail in 1950.
To cut the 24-year-long eventful vicissitudes of history short, in 1969 Maulana Bhashani branded the Ayub government as a lackey of imperialist forces and launched a movement to dislodge him from power. He organised strong resistance to the Agartala Conspiracy Case against Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and created pressure for the unconditional withdrawal of the case. In the face of mounting opposition movement, Ayub Khan had to resign as President of Pakistan.
With the beginning of War of Liberation in 1971 Maulana Bhasani took refuge in India. After his return to Dhaka on 22 January 1972, one of his first demands was to withdraw Indian troops from the soil of Bangladesh. On February 25 he started publishing weekly “Haq-Katha” which gained wide circulation, but it was soon banned.
Though imperial dynastic aggrandisement is a thing of the past, in Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan daughters, son and wife came to power under democracy because electorates of these countries favoured candidates from families that had ruled and enjoyed popularity. And Bangladesh is no exception: Sheikh Hasina has been leading the party for the last 35 years now; in all probability she will continue in future too.
The question is: Will this new phase of ruling AL after the 20th council bring a healthy democratic practice that abhors repression of opposition leaders? Opposition BNP chief Khaleda Zia herself was oppressed; and on 5 January 2015 sand-laden trucks reappeared on the streets of Dhaka. It was the first anniversary of a deeply flawed general election won by the ruling Awami League.
To quote the London-based Economist,“A year ago, in 2014, such trucks confined Khaleda Zia, a former prime minister, to her house. This time 2015 it was her office that the trucks blocked, backed up by the police, locking Mrs Zia inside for days on end—for her own protection”. Most importantly, will there be an end to extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearance perpetrated by police, RAB, DB, BGB and other government agencies? Can the people hope for good governance?
Food autarky and malnutrition
It is a happy augury that the country has made bold strides towards achieving food autarky under the able leadership of Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury. Indeed hunger has almost vanished, though certain pockets in the north report inadequacy.
Mrs. Matia Chowdhury said on 29 July 2016 that adoption of new technology has made the country self-sufficient in food production. The hybrid technology which was adopted by the government for the first time in agriculture during the regime between 1996 and 2001 period and the very latest technology like ‘Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) also was adopted subsequently on 2009 with a view to make the country self-sufficient in food production, she said.
An economist observed that good policies may not succeed in addressing the question of malnutrition unless backed by proper behavioural changes in households. A recent International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) studies in Bangladesh says that behavioural change at household level is sine qua non for nutritional improvement at household level.
However, this is a question of people’s culture which may be addressed through motivational programmes.
Source : Holiday
