The ruling Awami League and opposition Jatiya Party yesterday got united against the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, which has a member in the cabinet, for the later’s “anti-government” role between 1972 and 1975.
The heated debate created a tension for a while in the assembly.
This is for the first time in the last 56 working days of the 10th Jatiya Sangsad that parliament saw a chaos as a minister said the creation of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JaSaD) gave the anti-liberation forces an opening to unite under its banner.
Replying to a notice of Jatiya Party MP Kazi Feroz Rashid, Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque said the nation was paying for the mistakes of the JaSoD.
While reading out his private-member resolution asking the liberation war affairs minister to bring the list of the Bangladesh Liberation Force (BLF) from India, Kazi Feroz said Bangabandhu would not have been assassinated if the JaSoD had not formed its armed wing Gono Bahini.
The House adopted the first private member resolution according to which the government must bring the BLF list from India.
In presence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and JaSoD President Hasanul Haq Inu, who is also information minister, Moyeen Uddin Khan Badal of JaSoD termed the government-opposition consensus against the JaSoD surprising and said his party was “slaughtered”.
He said: “Mind it my friend, there could be explosion anytime if you walk in the minefield of history.”
Surrounded by the opposition MPs, Badal came under verbal attacks from Jatiya Party lawmakers, who stood up and started shouting at him.
“Say what you did between 1972 and 1975,” Pir Fazlur Rahman, a former Chhatra League leader and a present Jatiya Party MP, said without microphone. Kazi Feroz Rashid and Mohammad Noman also shouted at Badal, who took the floor on a point-of-order.
Kazi Feroz Rashid, a BLF member who took armed training in India to fight the occupation Pakistan forces in 1971, first pointed his gun at the JaSoD while reading out his private member resolution to bring a list of the BLF members from India.
“The BLF was created to stop any counter revolution after the liberation war. But one of the members of the force Sirajul Alam Khan came out of the organisation and formed the JaSoD. The JaSoD and the Gono Bahini killed Chhatra League-Jubo League activists,” Kazi Feroz told parliament.
He said: “If the JaSoD had not been created, the Gono Bahini would not have been created and nobody would have dared kill Bangabandhu.”
Mozammel Haque told the House: “Sirajul Alam Khan has paved the way for a counter revolution. The anti-liberation forces gathered centring the JaSoD. Those, such as the Muslim League, who could not accept Bangladesh turned JaSoD overnight.”
“But the nation is still paying for the mistake; we have been paying for 43 years,” he said requesting the House to accept the private member resolution of Kazi Feroz Rashid.
Taking floor on a point-of-order mainly to counter the minister, Badal said: “A surprising incident has taken place at the sangsad today: the opposition has tabled a proposal and an alliance of the ruling party has been slaughtered merrily.”
He said the JaSoD had been involved in every democratic movement since its inception.
“The events of 1972-75 were the curve of history; time will speak which was right and wrong,” he said.
“Speaking like that is not proper for an autocratic force against whom all parties fought,” said Badal saying that over 20,000 JaSoD activists were also killed.
He said the JaSoD aligned with the government with a decision.
“I was asked at a TV show why I defended the Awami League more than the Awami League. In reply, I said we have been aligned (with Awami League) to compensate the unfair way we treated our father.
In his wind-up speech, the Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad said a “bitter situation” emerged on the last day of the session. He said the previous bad precedence should not be revisited. “Let us bury the past”, said Ershad.
