Guests were curious about the possibility of an incidental meeting between Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the Armed Forces Day reception at Senakunja, but Khaleda did not join the programme.
The curiosity was apparently much deeper this time than the past occasions because of the ongoing political stalemate, which people expect to end through talks between the two top leaders.
BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and other top leaders joined the reception at the Dhaka Cantonment.
Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina exchanged greetings with Fakhrul and talked to him for a minute. Chief Whip of parliament Abdus Shahid, Information Minister Hasanul Haque Inu and Hasina’s economic affairs Adviser Moshiur Rahman were present at the scene.
Later, Shahid told journalists that Hasina had told Fakhrul to hold talks with her party’s General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam. “The prime minister also told him that her government was bound by the promise to hold a fair and neutral election,” said Shahid.
In the face of requests from journalists, Fakhrul, however, said they had only exchanged greetings.
“We will definitely join the dialogue if the government takes initiatives to hold it,” the BNP secretary general said.
When contacted later over phone, Fakhrul told the Dhaka Tribune: “Was what the chief whip said an official statement? Do they mean it?”
Asked about the possibility of talks with the BNP secretary general, Syed Ashraf, who attended the programme, declined to say anything.
Before the prime minister’s arrival shortly after 4pm, Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune that he was hoping that Khaleda would join the programme, the only yearly occasion that creates an opportunity of a direct conversation between the two leaders.
While contacted over phone after the programme, Mahbub said he could not say why Khaleda had not joined.
BNP chairperson’s Press Secretary also could not say why Khaleda had not attended the Armed Forces Day reception.
Only Maj Gen (retd) Fazle Elahi Akbar, security adviser to Khaleda, told the Dhaka Tribune: “She was a little indisposed.”
US Assistant Secretary Nisha Biswal during her two-day visit early this week urged the two major political parties to hold a general secretary-level dialogue immediately to resolve the ongoing crisis over holding the general elections.
Soon after Biswal’s visit Khaleda met President Abdul Hamid and requested his initiative for a dialogue.
Many ministers of the polls-time cabinet attended on Thursday’s programme where Hasina gave a speech and exchanged greetings with serving and former defence officers, their wives, politicians, diplomats, judges, top bureaucrats and other professionals.
Former military dictator and Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad, his wife and other leaders of the party who recently took oaths as polls-time cabinet members attended the programme.
Khaleda joined the Armed Forces Day reception last year, but Hasina and she did not meet or exchange greetings.
Former army chief Lt General Mahbubur Rahman, who is also a member of the BNP’s Standing Committee, attended the programme on Thursday.
Hasina exchanged greetings with the high profile dignitaries, including BNP leaders Jamir Uddin Sircar, Lt General (retd) Mahbubur Rahman and Fakhrul.
Most of the time Fakhrul was accompanied by Awami League leaders, ministers and advisers to Hasina.
As Dr Moshiur Rahman joined Dilip Barua and Fakhrul, Dilip was heard telling Moshiur: “We [Fakhrul and he] were in the same student organisation.”
When Hasina met BNP leader and former army chief Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman, she jokingly said in a loud voice: “Where does my general live? My chief of command, he went away, leaving me!”
Mahbub was the chief of army in 1996 when Sheikh Hasina was in power.
