by Nahid Kaizer and Nazmus Saquib
Finally the government has been formed after a farcical national election on 5 January. As expected, the Awami League led 14 party government knows how to keep the people on a guessing spree. Firstly, they made a drama with Ershad and ‘imprisoned’ him at CMH. When everyone was believing that Ershad would jeopardize the Awami League’s wish to remain in power through a one sided election, the second drama was yet to unfold. This time it was Ershad’s beloved Rawshan Ershad who announced that her husband has blessed her to join in the opposition party and participate on the 10th parliament, much to the dismay of Ershad’s own followers who withdrew their nominations upon his directive. Now the Rawshan led Jatiyo Party is the main opposition in the 10th parliament! If you think that that’s the way to wrap this drama, then you are wrong, there is still more to come!
Ershad has been nominated as the special envoy of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. This very Ershad just before his ‘imprisonment’ at the CMH claimed that his party would not participate in the one sided election of Hasina. He even asked his party leaders to withdrow their nomination papers. So how come now he joins with this controversial government?
Political analysts believe that once a dictator is always a dictator. And they also opine that Ershad is the most opportunist person this country has ever produced. At a time when the nation expected that he would respond to the call of the nation and act according to some basic moral principles, he went to the other way. Being the most hated person does not bother him, but achieving personal benefits through immoral means is perhaps loved by him.
If Ershad acted the way most people wanted, the political scenario might have been different now. There are some people who believe that Ershad had no choice, but to bow down to the government pressure.
But still, there are some people who believe that Ershad could have accepted government influenced injustice and embrace whatever comes his way. By bowing down to government pressure, he has seriously lost his credibility to the people which is hard to recover for him in the coming days.
