The top brass might be telling everyone to not be frustrated and keep spirits high, but the grassroots BNP leaders and activists – the force that should be driving the party – do not see anything to be enthusiastic about; at least not for the time being.
On many occasions in recent times, the grassroots leaders and activists of the party have vented their discontent in front of the senior leaders.
That frustration now seemed to have infected the central leaders as well.
At a discussion in the capital yesterday, BNP acting secretary general MirzaFakhrul Islam Alamgir said he did not anymore feel like talking about the government’s “misdeeds” because they always landed on deaf ears.
Fakhrul said: “People have forgotten the Hall-Mark, Destiny and the stock market scams. It is simply unbelievable how can the people, who fought for the language in 1952, staged the mass upsurge in 1969 and fought in the liberation war in 1971, be so tolerant. I do not know why people are tolerating everything silently.”
He said: “I do not feel like giving speeches anymore. I do not feel like saying the same things again and again. Who should I tell them to? What will we get?”
Virtually nothing had been going right for the party – neither before the national election, which it boycotted, nor after the voting.
Despite staging months of violent and bloody street protests, the party could not prevent its arch rival Awami League from holding the national election, which the BNP boycotted.
The party seemed to have lost its edge in drumming up support even when the issue relates to public interests. The much-hyped Teesta long march – the first major programme of the party since the January election – could not be termed successful by any stretch of the imagination.
Khaleda Zia has time and time again slammed the senior party leaders for not taking to the streets during the major movements. That trend remained unchanged with the long march as well. Only a few senior leaders took part in the long march. Even most of the senior leaders of the partner parties of the 18-party combine did not take part in the long march.
The grassroots’ frustration was visible in the way the long march contingent was greeted. Most district units of the party appeared to be indifferent to the programme. Nothing was there that could tell that it was the party’s first major move in months.
Many senior leaders including its chief has been claiming for many days that the party had been going through a reorganisation process. They have vowed to kick off a strong movement for “toppling” the “illegal” government as soon as the reorganisation was complete.
However, there has been very little visible progress made in that regard. The party has not yet managed to announce the committee for its Dhaka city unit although Khaleda Zia has on many occasions stressed the needs for forming the committee.
Among its associate wings, only Sramik Dal – the labour wing – has managed to hold its council so far. But, neither the central Sramik Dal nor its Dhaka city unit, succeeded in forming new committees amid factional disputes.
In recent times, many pro-BNP professionals could be heard saying openly that the party needed to change its movement strategy if it had to ensure its existence.
However, with the party reverting back to its usual strategy of banking on political issues instead of those of public interests, it could be easily said that things were going to remain unchanged for the grassroots.