A proposal to bring the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami to the same anti-government movement platform has sparked tension in the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led opposition camp.
Several leaders of the BNP and other parties of the simultaneous movement confirmed to New Age that, in a recent meeting, BNP high-ups proposed bringing Jamaat to the same platform.
‘Leaders of many parties, mostly from Ganatantra Mancha, were taken aback by the proposal placed in a meeting held virtually,’ a senior BNP leader who attended the meeting told New Age.
He said that after giving a brief about the success and failure of the ongoing simultaneous movement, a top-level BNP leader suddenly made the proposal at the meeting held in the past week.
Following the meeting, Ganatantra Mancha, a combine of six parties, also held a meeting separately and informed BNP that keeping Jamaat on the same platform would go against the principles that the parties decided upon when they were finalising the 31-point demand that sparked the simultaneous movement.
The six parties are Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-JSD, the Revolutionary Workers Party of Bangladesh, Nagarik Oikya, Ganosamhati Andolan, Rastra Sagskar Andolon, and Bhashani Anushari Parishad.
Speaking about the matter, RWPB general secretary Saiful Haque told New Age that the Ganatantra Mancha believed the movement should go forward through the existing method and parties out of simultaneous movement should continue their agitation separately.
‘Since everyone is currently demanding the same thing, there is no need to reshape the movement in the middle of it,’ he said.
Democrat Left Unity, an alliance of four left-leaning political parties, the Communist Party of Bangladesh (Marxist Leninist), the Social Democratic Party, the Samajtantrik Majdur Party, and the Progressive Democratic Party, who are actively participating in the BNP-led simultaneous movement, also expressed serious reservations about the proposal.
Social Democratic Party convener Abul Kalam Azad told New Age that his alliance, through internal communication, informed BNP that participating in any programme with Jamaat was not possible for them.
‘Our position is very clear; we would not sit with Jamaat together on any platform,’ he said.
In a statement on Tuesday, JSD said that the downfall of the fascist government through the movement and the implementation of the 31-point pledge through the election and government formation have opened up the possibility of introducing a people-oriented regime in national politics in opposition to the Awami League.
Making oblique reference to the proposed BNP move to bring Jamaat onto the same platform, JSD resolved that all parties, alliances, or individuals in the ongoing simultaneous movement must scrupulously avoid any steps that might endanger the possibility, the public will, or confidence.
Several leaders of BNP and other partners alleged that a group of BNP leaders were pushing its high-ups to engage Jamaat in the ongoing movement in a simultaneous manner or on the same platform.
They said that as many BNP leaders, including the party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamigir and standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, are now in jail, the Jamaat sympathisers in the party have become active.
They said that such a move involving Jamaat in the movement could destroy the unity of 39 political parties and alliances that remained united on a common agenda.
They also said that Islami Andolon Bangladesh and some other Islamic parties linked to faith-based Hefazat-e-Islami were also not interested in sharing any platform with Jamaat.
Asked about the matter, BNP standing committee member Salahuddin Ahmed, who is currently staying in India but maintains a close tie with the acting chairperson, Tarique Rahman, living in London, has refused to make any comment.
A total of 36 parties and alliances joined the BNP-led simultaneous movement on December 30 last year, and later some other parties joined.
Jamaat and Aamar Bangladesh Party, who are not in the simultaneous movement, are separately active in the street movement.
In December 2021, the BNP announced that there was no existence of a BNP-led 20-party alliance, leading to their exposure of gradual distancing between the two former allies.
BNP insiders said that the two parties mended their relations somewhat after BNP issued a statement following the death of Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayeedi in August.
Following the attack of the police and the ruling party activists on the thwarted grand rally of the BNP on October 28, Jamaat announced parallel programmes with the main opposition party.
When asked, Jamaat’s spokesperson, Motiur Rahman Akand, told New Age that there was a discussion between BNP and Jamaat about the strategies of the ongoing movement.
‘But no decision has yet been taken whether we will continue movement from the same platform or separately. We all are now facing various oppressions by the ruling quarter as opposition, so we should do something in a combined manner,’ he added.
New Age
