BNP leaders have been confronted with a difficult situation following war criminal Ghulam Azam’s son’s open challenge that the BNP cannot assume office without the help of Jamaat.
Since the Jamaat guru’s son Abdullahil Amaan Azmi posted the remark in his Facebook on Wednesday, BNP leaders have remained tight-lipped on the issue as they believed that commenting on this regard might strain ties between the BNP and the Jamaat-e-Islami.
BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, however, yesterday termed Azmi’s comments – which also accused the BNP of being a party of “ungrateful” people – a “personal statement.”
Since Azmi’s posted his statement in Facebook, a heated debate has been going on in the social media and even in the political arena.
“Ghulam Azam’s son does not do politics. So I see this comment as a son’s aggrieved lamentation over his father’s death,” Major (retd) Mohammad Hafizuddin Ahmed, vice-chairman of the BNP, told the Dhaka Tribune.
Hafizuddin, however, said: “It is not true that BNP cannot go to the office without the help of the Jamaat. The BNP formed the government in 1991 without forming any coalition with the Jamaat. The BNP is a large political party and it has huge popularity.”
He also said the BNP’s tie with the Jamaat was an electoral one, adding that Jamaat had also formed an alliance with the Awami League once.
“This [alliance] is not a permanent one. They [Jamaat] have the liberty to leave the alliance and they can do it any time,” Hafizuddin said.
When asked about Azmi’s remarks, BNP chairperson’s Adviser Osman Farruk said: “I do not want to make any comment. Already senior leaders have commented on the issue. If various party leaders talk on the same issue, it might create confusion.”
Abdul Awal Mintoo, another adviser to the BNP chairperson, said Azmi’s statement would not put any impact on BNP-Jamaat ties as the basis of forming the alliance still prevailed.
“One has to identify the party stance, ideological stance and personal stance. Mr Azmi’s stance is his personal opinion. So I firmly believe that his comment will not create any rift in the BNP-Jamaat tie.”
Meanwhile, addressing a press briefing at the party’s Nayapaltan headquarters yesterday, Mirza Fakhrul said: “We will not take Azmi’s remarks over the BNP-Jamaat tie into consideration as it was his personal opinion. We cannot consider the remarks as an official statement of the Jamaat-e-Islami.
“I do not know whether Professor Ghulam Azam’s son is a Jamaat-e-Islami official or a member. And as we are yet to receive any official statement from the party, we will not make further remarks over the issue.”
The spokesperson of the BNP, a long-standing political ally of the Jamaat, further said the BNP has joined hands with the Jamaat in order to wage a movement demanding election under a non-partisan government.
On Wednesday, labelling the BNP as “ungrateful” in a Facebook status, Azmi said he was disappointed with the party’s silence regarding the death of Ghulam Azam, the spiritual guru of the Jamaat.
In the status, he said the BNP would never be able to go to power again without the Jamaat-e-Islami’s support, triggering a heated debate among the supporters of the two political allies in social media.
Along with the status, he shared a news item titled “BNP boycotts Azam’s funeral prayer upon Tarique’s order” picked up from a website.
