The year 2015 has not been the happiest for people involved actively with the politics of BNP. They exhausted a lot of time, money and energy into a violent movement during January-March that eventually failed.
In return, most have not been able to return home, either because they were arrested or trying to avoid arrest in hundreds of lawsuits filed in connection with those three months’ street violence.
Since the movement faded in early April, senior leaders – also wanted in violence-related cases – have stopped going to their respective areas, rendering the party organisationally dead.
Nazrul Islam Khan, a member of BNP’s standing committee, said: “In some districts, committees have expired. In some places, top leaders have become inactive. In other places, posts have remained vacant. Addressing all these issues is also part of the reorganisation process. But many of our colleagues have been killed by ruling party men, many were paralysed by torture. So, reorganising the party has been a challenge.”
Eminent political scientist Rounaq Jahan said: “It is true that when political parties are in opposition, they face repression from the ruling regime. Leaders and workers of opposition parties are put in jail or face various forms of harassment. This situation has prevailed under military rule as well as under our elected political governments. So, it is hard to carry on organisational activities when parties are in opposition.”
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In such a situation, many local level leaders and activists of the BNP have been joining the ruling party by making open announcements. Reportedly, thousands of grassroots-level leaders and activists of both the BNP and its political ally Jamaat-e-Islami joined the Awami League in the last three months.
“How long does it take to reorganise a party? Is nine years not enough? So, the repeated announcement of reorganisnig the party will only pave the way for some senior leaders to make some money,” a district level leader told the Dhaka Tribune recently seeking anonymity.
According to Rounaq Jahan, the Awami League is an old political party and has a strong sense of identity because it led the nationalist movement. That was why the Awami League succeeded in retaining its support base even when it was out of power for 21 years during 1975-96 and before that during 1949-71.
“But the case is different for the BNP. The Awami League and the Jamaat were formed by people who were not commanding state power. But the BNP was formed by people who used state power to recruit supporters. Breakaway groups and people from different political parties joined the BNP. There was no strong ideology binding these people who came from both leftist and rightist orientation. Their mass driving force was an anti-Awami League sentiment,” said the researcher.
“So, it is tough for the BNP to keep its leaders and activists together when they are out of the power for a long time as its support is based on access to patronage which can be delivered when the party holds state power,” she added.
Among the 15 vice chairmen of the party, only four are currently active in politics, while three are severely ill, one is behind bars and one is on the run.
All the joint secretaries were on the run during the movement earlier this year. Amanullah Aman was busy in arranging his son’s wedding during the movement and went into hiding right after. Mizanur Rahman Minu and Barkatullah Bulu were on the run throughout the entire duration of the movement. Mahbub Uddin Khokon was busy with his law practice.
Mohammad Shahjahan was behind bars while Salahuddin Ahmed – who acted as the party’s underground crisis communicator for a brief period – went missing from Dhaka in the middle of the movement and was found several months later in the Indian state of Shillong.
Organising secretary Fazlul Huq Milon has come to be known as an opportunist who is never seen in the streets during movements and only appears to show his face in the media at press conferences.
Ilyas Ali, the one active organising secretary, went missing several years ago and have not been seen since. The rest exist just on papers and have rarely been seen except for a few public meetings.
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BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has often rebuked the senior and mid-level leaders for not being in the field during street movements. Recently, it is said that she does not trust these leaders anymore and have been making most decisions by herself for months.
According to Mohammad Shahjahan, a joint secretary general of the party, reorganising means to bring the dedicated, committed and experienced leaders to the forefront.
Asked why they have not been able to do it in nine years, he said: “We have not done it nine years does not mean that would not be able to do it ever. Those in charge of reorganising the party in the previous years did not perform well due to various reasons.” But this time, the party will be reorganised, he affirmed.
Political scientist Ataur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune: “In a nutshell, organisation means ideology in action. But the way BNP is trying to reorganise – by holding some meetings and sittings – will not bring any results.”
He prescribed that the party should now launch a membership drive across the country to find out the people who truly believes in the party’s ideologies and bring them under the umbrella.
“The BNP has huge popularity in the country; plus there is dissatisfaction among people against the government. So, the BNP should capitalise on this.
“The central leadership will have to be united. Basically, political parties in Bangladesh are based on patron-client relationship. As BNP has been out of the office for a long time, it has no patron. The BNP has become dry even for its activists and leaders,” Ataur said.
