The grassroots of the BNP have been left without any instructions on carrying forward the movement in this crucial time as a sudden crackdown on the party top brass has pushed the central leadership into trauma.
The role of central leaders, particularly those in Dhaka city unit, after Friday’s arrest of three standing committee members and the raids of the houses of several others, has frustrated and angered the leaders at the district and upazila levels.
They, however, have still kept morale high, saying the rank-and-file members of the main opposition are ready to march toward Dhaka for tougher street movements in order to compel the government to meet their demands.
Protests against the arrest of three central leaders—Moudud Ahmed, MK Anwar and Rafiqul Islam Miah—along with party chief’s adviser Abdul Awal Mintoo and personal aide Shimul Biswas—were louder in their home towns than in Dhaka on Saturday, the day before the 84-hour countrywide shutdown began.
Extension of the three-day hartal by 12 hours was the only response that came after the Friday night’s crackdown, which left Ruhul Kabir Rizvi as almost the lone spokesperson for the party during the toughest ever time for the party.
The Dhaka Tribune correspondents talked with a number of district and Upazilla level BNP leaders to know about their plans and activities to cope up with the latest crisis following the Friday’s crackdown.
“We are observing the situation in Dhaka,” said Azizur Rahman, Cox’s Bazar district BNP leader. “The movement is more vigorous at the grassroots level than in Dhaka,” he claimed.
“The movement has to be waged in Dhaka. But the leaders there are failing to do so.”
Aziz, who is also president of the district’s Shechchhasebak Dal, the BNP’s wing of volunteers, said they have not gotten any special directive yet from the central or senior leaders in Dhaka in response to this crisis.
Friday night’s arrests and raids have scared most front ranking leaders of the central and city units into hiding to avoid arrest. Calls to their cellphones are hardly answered.
Law-enforcers in plainclothes encircled the Gulshan residence and office of party Chairperson Khaleda Zia. Heavily guarded headquarters of the party at Nayapaltan is rarely visited by any leader of the party or its front bodies.
No BNP leaders have tried to meet Khaleda at her home since the arrest of Mintoo and Shimul immediately after they came out of Khaleda’s house in Gulshan Friday night.
Some sources, however, said that Khaleda remained in touch with some senior leaders over phone as she usually doesn’t go out of her residence during the opposition alliance’s hartal.
After the arrest of the senior leaders, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia asked party’s other top leaders to support the movement whilst evading arrest, according to top level sources.
But some BNP activists and leaders outside Dhaka expressed their frustration over the inaction of leaders in the capital from the top to ward level. Many of them said party policymakers might not come to the street to wage movement and get arrested, but they should not distance themselves from party leaders who were waiting for their calls.
Even on the first day of the 84-hour hartal, Dhaka city leaders and Thana and ward level leaders did not show up in the street.
“We are frustrated over the performance of senior leaders in Dhaka,” Mesbahuddin Farhad, Barisal district BNP president and also a lawmaker from Barisal-4 constituency, said, “The poor performance of Dhaka city BNP in the street frustrated us greatly.”
The lax organisational performance also irked the party chief. In Thursday’s standing committee meeting, Khaleda expressed her disappointment over the poor performance of Dhaka city unit BNP.
She then told the meeting: “You the senior leaders do not take to the street. You confine yourself to your house. Ok, if you stay indoors; I will take to the street and, if needed, will be arrested. I will wage action alone with the activists.”
Khaleda particularly slammed senior leaders for not being present on streets during shutdowns.
“We are doing tough hartals in Barisal,” said Farhad, Barisal district BNP president. “But movement should be intensified in the capital,” he said adding he was yet to get any direction from central leaders.
“We are getting information about the latest political situation and the party stances through newspapers and television channels, and we interpret those using our political farsightedness,” said Amjad Hossain, Meherpur district BNP president and lawmaker. He also complained that there was no direct instruction from any of the top leaders so far about the movement.
Some leaders in the grassroots think they might not be able to do anything if the government holds national elections without BNP. Some of them believe the latest arrest is a move to break the confidence of party leaders.
Against this backdrop, Khaleda has appealed all leaders and activists not to be morally down because of the arrests, party insiders said.
Despite frustrations, some leaders were trying to boost the morale of party activists and colleagues, they claimed.
Luxmipur district BNP leader ABM Ashrafuddin Nizan, also a lawmaker from Luxmipur-4 constituency thought that the central and Dhaka leaders of the party could not wage movement in the capital as law enforcers took a hard line.
“So party’s grassroots leaders have to be more active than those in Dhaka,” he felt.
“How long will the law enforcers be able to protect Dhaka? The capital has already become isolated from the rest of the country due to opposition’s movement,” the lawmaker claimed.
“The government’s plan to hold national election under their own arrangement will not come true,” said Thakurgaon BNP General Secretary Taimur Rahman.
Shamsuzzoha Khan, president of Naogaon BNP, said the ongoing movement would not bring any result for them until they could show strong demonstration in the capital. “Central leaders should take to the street immediately.”
Khaleda Zia repeatedly asked the party leaders to take to the street to mount pressure on the government but her call remained almost unheard by party hierarchy.
However, a number of top BNP leaders expressed their resentment at the “unplanned and immature” polls-time interim government proposal and poor handling of the prime minister’s invitation, which, they said, caused the party’s failure to intensify the ongoing movement.
Many also noticed low turnout of party leaders and activists in Thursday’s rally at Suhrawardy Udyan. Only a few hundred BNP leaders and activists showed up there, while BNP chairperson chose to address the rally through a video conference from her Gulshan residence, few kilometers away from the venue.
But the grassroots still keep their hopes alive.
“At some point the Dhaka will be the centre point of our movement and we will realise our demand,” said Meherpur district BNP leader Amjad.