What does Hifazat-e-Islam mean to the people of this country and to Dhaka in particular? To some schematic Marxists they were the proletariats in pajamas and beard who had come to deliver a revolutionary basket of messages and remedies which deserved support. To most middle class members they were hordes from hell going to eat up Bangladesh and trample the very values that led to its birth. Others were confused, reeling between traditional respect for the ‘religious leaders’ and lack of respect for rabble rousers wanting to drag back the society to an ancient era. Media and talk shows exploded with discussions and debate. What was curious is that so many thought they had to use a language appropriate to a discussion on Islam and become scholars and pretend to defend the ‘liberal spirit of Islam’. Atheism became the worst crime passing treason and national betrayal. In the absence of Jamaat-e-Islami as the full and visible player of Islamic politics, Hifazat has become Islamic voice by default.
It’s a sign that the political system in Bangladesh is now so weak that it can’t even counter the arguments of those people who had assembled in Motijheel demanding a state which made barely any sense in today’s world. Even Sheikh Hasina went on to claim she would run Bangladesh set by the principles of the Prophet at Medina forgetting that we have a constitution which is also based on universal principles of justice and equality. Meanwhile the Hifazatis had no idea that most were using them for their own gain as politics and politicians had literally run out of ideas and this seemed like a new trick in town. The Hifazatis have become everyone’s scapegoat.
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Of the lot, the militant Jamatis have played the most significant card. They have used Hifazat the most and done their dirty work hiding behind Hifazati kurtas. It was best displayed at Motijheel when they held a mass wreckage party. Generally, ‘Huzurs’ don’t burn footpath shops and they hardly fight the police the way the evening saw. These are basically people who mostly live on charities and ignorance or prejudice. The Hifazatis are not concerned about politics; their focus is much more on women and their own insecure and futureless livelihood. Their world view is securely tied to the medieval era and neither the AL nor the BNP concerns or bothers them.
Such is their ignorance that they are blind to the fact that most of Bangladeshi wealth is produced by women’s hands and unless women work at the RMG factories and in the field, the country will — very likely — disappear. In their world, women don’t work so they have no understanding of economics and society let alone shared work. They should not be taken seriously as far as their demands are concerned nor contested as a part of faith but it’s the acts that have been committed by them or in their name that need to be perused and dealt accordingly.
But the BNP and Jatiya Party have also tried to use them by offering support and resources and it’s not because they have any ideological friendship with the Hifazat. While Jatiya Party is as always a party of convenience, it’s the BNP which stood out looking lost and pathetic hoping that Hifazat will do what they have failed to. They have literally run out of ideas and many in the party were hoping that if the Hifazatis refused to leave Dhaka, the government would cave in. This party simply doesn’t have the organisational and intellectual resources to combat the party in power and the kind of absurd statements made by their leaders about the death count of the Motijheel night, would in less strenuous times, be the stuff of absurdity. Sadly, only the party looks absurd now because all they can do is offer hartals which have some sting left but no meaning.
Nobody knows why these hartals are called and what political message they are supposed to deliver and people somehow make way through it rendering them redundant. Of course it doesn’t know what else to do. At least, Jamaat has a cause which is trying to put pressure to release its leaders but for the BNP it’s about coming to power and it doesn’t know how. Maybe Zubaida Zia, Khaleda’s daughter-in-law who was rumoured to be interested to take over could come in and offer some relief to the party.
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This leaves the ruling party Awami League which many accuse of being the chief gardener of bringing Hifazat to such a prominent space. The Hifazat-e Islami is part of the IOJ and their position like all other members of the Jote is not worth discussing in the contemporary era. Given the level of their arguments they probably think that man never landed on the moon. Their main claim to the public space is their opposition to the National Womens Policy. When they last mounted their tirade, PM Hasina took steps to mollify them. The first time they came, they were allowed to hold the rally and the home minister thanked them when they left. However, they were given permission the second time to rally and obstruct the roads and then also assemble at Dhaka Motijheel on May 5. When they went on a rampage, burning and destroying, they had already challenged the state and it was a matter of survival for the government party to move against them. Why the government allowed them in is a mystery and it may have been planned that way to get rid of them and in the process weaken the BNP further.
The Government operation required a lot of preparation and the biggest victims of the night were the madrassah and the etimkhana children like the one seen by many in a photograph shared in the social media — taking shelter behind a policeman. These children were used by the Huzurs.
The Hifazat should be prosecuted for having used children as ‘soldiers’ that night to confront the government, a serious crime in many parts of the world. The Government should also be investigated if they knew children were there or not and if so what steps they took to avoid harm to them.
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Once the state is threatened by a force of thousands who refuse to budge unless their demands are met, it will always be met with violence from the state. That night they contested the state and received the state response. It may be disproportionate to the threat as some argue but it doesn’t make the Hifazat-e Islam innocent.
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One may raise questions about the level of force or hiding of some acts and facts by the police but the accusations of death of thousands are meaningless. Bengalis are not very good at facts and can immediately leap from 1 to 1 million in seconds. The police claim that no one was killed in the night operation is also absurd and the only answer is to set up an independent committee but in this land of lies and subterfuge, facts are the last thing people have in mind when they investigate something.
In comparison, the Huzurs from the villages, those who were left behind at night to face the combined wrath of the police, BGB and RAB at least seemed stupid and silly but believers in their cause. These impoverished people from the villages who however had come to the city to demand a set of values which were backward, anti-people and against the principles of the state and the constitution were more foolish than cynical unlike the parties which tried to use them and were hoping to gain whatever can be from their overnight stay.
What we are left with is the tattered state of our politics. History has shown that we are quite incapable of a mature transfer of power and every five years we act like spoiled brats on drugs who have no notion of the consequences of our acts. Right now we have a UN person telling us that negotiations are the only way out but whether we are capable of listening is another matter. We have become a Rana Plaza state waiting to collapse.
Source: Bd news24
