The inevitable is happening – Jatiya Party is in turmoil. This time, it appears the multiple divisions are permanent. The factions (there are several already in the scene) are embroiled in an internecine struggle. Perturbed leaders find themselves radar-less, dumped in an ocean of uncertainty.
The cracks began to show well before the last national parliamentary polls. HM Ershad was cornered and no one was allowed to think and act independently. When he was on the verge of siding with the poll-boycott parties, slowly but surely, his leadership started slipping.
He threatened, in his customary gimmicky way, that he would kill himself if he was forced to participate in the January polls which were set to take place with only the Awami League and its loyal allies taking part.
The nation witnessed an exciting turn of events at every moment, until Ershad was whisked away to the military hospital for a “check-up” and “treatment.” In reality, he went in for an indefinite internment. That was the last of Ershad’s leadership.
From there on, Rawshan Ershad took over and the rest is history. Rawshan, like her husband, was also dreaming of tasting power once more by any means. Her timely response to the AL scheme was rewarded.
The ageing general could not swallow this. The general, who also never gave up his wishes to be the head of the state or government again, went on trying to bounce back by saying and doing things which only backfired.
His relentless struggle against the legal suits, challenges within the party leadership, discord among the leaders – all kept coming at him without respite. He lost veterans like Kazi Zafar and others who mattered to the party.
When he lost the first round to AL, he may have realised that all had ended for him. His comments, speeches, and remarks went on to become mystifying, losing bite each day. Their connotations got more mind boggling until his words reached pointlessness.
Someone who was so vociferously opposed to taking part in a one-sided election had to eventually accept the more loyal office of the special emissary of the prime minister.
He knew that he had lost the battle. After he failed to win his skirmishes against AL and found himself in a mortified frame, he took on his wife, who by then had been well-handled by the AL.
The cold war, which began years ago between the spouses, now spilled over onto the streets. Out of sheer frustration and angst, Ershad fired his loyal secretary general. He dismissed senior colleagues of the presidium, and he will do more to create a rift within the party only to contest his consort, who now stands against his eminence. He will act more irrationally in the days to come for he knows that his party is no longer the party he had started off with.
The Jatiya Party is his baby. He groomed it. He enjoyed the presidency and ruled the country as its leader. He became a valid opposition as the JaPa head and he enjoyed parliamentary privileges as the JaPa chairman.
Whatever the reason, JaPa has been enjoying a support base. The party is nearly 30 years old and has earned itself both good and bad name. It has been in Bangladeshi politics as an auxiliary force and was never overlooked by either the AL or BNP.
Those days of serious politics are now over and gone. Ershad is in new pain now. He finds his dream of coming back to power permanently shattered. Although, just the other day, he spelt out his conviction that his party would form the next government, but even as he said this, he was hardly audible.
With his decades of experience in state administration, in defence forces, in opposition, he aptly realises that he now stands a loser.
What he does not realise is that all his life he never knew what his political philosophy was – what he really wanted to achieve as a statesman, what exactly he was driving at.
He spoke of people’s welfare but seldom could he deliver, mainly due to his dual personality. He lived diverse lives at different moments. His immaculate outfits, tall physique, articulate speeches, and emotional expressions made him an interesting figure to watch and listen to. But all the time, his delivery lacked substance, which was imperative for a person in his position.
He leaves JaPa in turmoil. Not that he wanted to, but his deeds and subsequent circumstances have turned his party into factions of disgruntled leaders who will keep on quarrelling for years to come until they get decimated.
Sad but true, the party has faded faster than expected. Ershad will take only one grain of solace from this pandemonium – that his wife, and others who plotted his ousting, shall not have the same JaPa that he so fondly created. JaPa will live in many small factions in not too many places. The party was his creation, and its collapse is also due to his follies.
