That experience does not increase with age is true of human beings as it is true of many things related to human beings. When people get older, in most cases they experience dementia, there are diseases related to old age, and it also affects Bhimrati. Maturity comes to very few old men. Old people find happiness in reliving the past. Where they had little or no role, they are inflated. If they have a reprehensible role somewhere, they try to suppress it.
In the case of Awami League and Jamaat-e-Islami, the two man-made political parties in Bangladesh, their age-related problems are also strong. Both the parties are old and after two days on June 23 Awami League will be 78 years old. Jamaat-e-Islami is now 85 years old. There are many similarities and many dissimilarities between the two teams. They have had an uneasy love affair at the crossroads of history – in supporting Fatima Jinnah as a presidential candidate against Ayub Khan in 1965, in reaching a secret pact with the Awami League to go to the polls under Ershad in 1986, and in bringing the Awami League to power by defeating the BNP in 1996. As soon as Awami League-Jamaat love was broken, their bond of love broke as quickly. The two parties have more in common – Jamiat-e-Islami hides its role as much as possible in ‘Ekattare’, in the same way Awami League suppressed the ‘Bakshal scandal’ of 1975. Although the Awami League claimed to be determined to implement every ‘dream’ of Sheikh Mujib, Sheikh Hasina did not even once express her desire to re-establish her father’s great initiative ‘Bakshal’ during the 1996-2001 and 2009-2024 periods.
How many groups were born in Bangladesh during this long period, how many groups were destroyed and ceased to exist, can be an excellent topic of research. The Muslim League established in Dhaka in 1906 played a single role in achieving the independence of Pakistan. The party also ruled Pakistan and the eastern region of Pakistan, East Pakistan. The Muslim League could not sustain its existence anywhere else except in the pages of history. In the 1954 elections, the ‘United Front’ comprising Awami Muslim League, Krishak Sramik Party, Nezam-e-Islam, Demokrati Dal, Khilafat-e-Rabbani Party formed the provincial government in East Pakistan. Apart from the ‘Muslim’ barred Awami League, no one knows the names of the parties that once shared power except the political historians of Bangladesh. Cadre-based organizations like Jamaat-e-Islami also broke up – once under the leadership of Maulana Abdur Rahim on a large scale, and again on a smaller scale under the leadership of Maulana Abdul Jabbar. These two factions of the Jamaat no longer exist.
Until the mid-eighties, every pro-Beijing leftist leader had a small faction. None exist now. Ershad’s Jatiya Party, which is in power with power and has been in the opposition for several times in the National Parliament, has been divided into three or four parts and now almost every part is in a low state. In January 1975, Awami League amended the constitution and dissolved their own party and established Bakshal. But Awami League could not have ‘tawakkul’ or trust in Bakshal, the harvest of their efforts. President Ziaur Rahman, who is the poison in the eyes of Awami leaders, took an oath to follow the rules of the ‘Political Parties Regulation Act’ (PPR) or ‘Political Party Rules’ announced by the military ruler and allowed the new ‘Awami League’ to enter the politics of Bangladesh. Just as an animal’s age stops there when it dies, the group ceased to exist in 1975 after a group confirmed its own death.
To calculate the age of the current Awami League, but for the sake of logic, it is consistent to count from the year 1976. When the leaders of the party appealed to give a chance to political party in Bangladesh which was dissolved by them. What irony of fate! The party which has fought against Pakistan’s military rule for a long time, led by the leaders of the party which got the country independence just six years ago and the party leaders who became the parents of the country and the wretched people of the country after independence, have offered to the military government to give a little chance to do politics. The military government gave them ‘kind’ permission to do politics and after getting the approval, a convening committee of the party was formed under the leadership of Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury. The initiation of a new organization is done by the convening committee. But since ‘party’ is an ‘idea’ or ‘ideal,’ it has scope for rebirth. As such, if Awami League calculates their age from its founding in 1949 with a break in between, then it will not be blameworthy.
In the psychological branch of medical science, there are more examples in the world of people’s ‘Near Death Experience’ (NDE) or near death but coming back to life, like the return of Awami League to politics in 1976. Such a return to political parties is described in political psychology as ‘identity based polarisation’; In other words, this return has more to do with the party’s strict adherence to policies than with the apparent political vacuum in the country, with the hope of creating a strong position in the political arena by exploiting the emotions of old supporters in the near future. Even behind the reappearance of Awami League, there was no need to stick to the principles. However, Awami League had to wait for a long 21 years to come to power for the second time in independent Bangladesh. It would not have been possible for the Awami League, if the Jamaat-e-Islami had not been angry with the BNP for various reasons before the 1996 elections and fell from their lap.
However, the breakup of Awami League’s post-Bakshal and re-emerged Awami League with the generosity of the military government led by Ziaur Rahman did not last long. The part led by pro-Moscow Mohiuddin Ahmad and pro-Indian Abdur Razzak, who were confident of Bakshal, at one stage realized that the advantage of having one leader and a group of Bakshal from the seat of power under the leadership of Sheikh Mujib, in the absence of power, cannot be facilitated in politics by just hanging the Bakshal signboard.
So after a few years they lost confidence in Bakshal and joined Awami League. When the Awami League entered the field politics after getting the approval of the military government, the leadership conflict started in the party. In this conflict, Awami League was divided and a large part was led by Abdul Malek Ukil and a small part was led by Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury. Human mind is very strange. Within a short period of time, Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury, a one-time Jandarel leader of Awami League and a former minister, received the Prime Ministership offer from another military government head Hussain Muhammad Ershad and took it and buried his part of the Awami League and joined Ershad’s Jatiya Party and decorated the seat of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh for approximately 1 year and 9 months.
Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury did nothing wrong by burying the fragmented Awami League that fell under his lot. If he did not do this and dissolved in the Awami League led by Sheikh Hasina, would it have been possible for him to become the Prime Minister of Bangladesh? Not even in the past! Position is very important in power politics, whether it is a position of actual power, or a decorative position like the king of cards.
During Ershad’s rule, he appointed four prime ministers in the seven years from 1984 to 1990. Every time the Awami League led by Sheikh Hasina formed the government, she became the prime minister. Even if a more qualified leader existed in the party, it was self-evident that no one else in the party was destined for this post during his lifetime. The ‘natural death’ of a political party is one thing, and by amending the constitution, creating new laws, killing off a party rich in tradition, rich in achievements and experience, involves the death penalty for those convicted of crimes as serious as murder. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman did this. He not only killed his party, but also buried all the major political parties in the country. Banned the publication of newspapers. What the Awami League believes was or still is printed in their party constitution, if they really believed in it, they could not have established a one-party, one-person ‘Bakshali’ regime.
Awami League leaders talk about democracy, the party’s constitution has beautiful words like ‘institutionalizing parliamentary democracy, ensuring the freedom and security of exercising voting rights as desired by the people, ensuring secularism and religious freedom, and providing for the unity and solidarity of the people’. But in reality, how to come to power by seducing the people and taking away the right to vote, that strategy is unknown to any other party except Awami League. But if Awami League did something good for the country and the people even after coming to power through strategy, then the people would feel relieved. But somehow, as soon as they came to power, the leaders and activists of Awami League messed up, lost political etiquette, and found opponents of Awami League among everyone.
Thus they turned Awami League into an authoritarian and authoritarian party. All in all, they create such a situation in the country, from which they themselves cannot escape, putting the country in danger. August 75th and August 24th, the top leadership of Awami League invited themselves, will it be increased? Awami League has fallen into a ditch dug by itself. As a large party they could come to power again and again. Did they need to transform nationalism into radical political nationalism? Everyone knows and means that the spirit of ‘Bengali nationalism’ has proved a failure of the state of Pakistan founded on binationalism. Was it necessary to divide the countrymen into ‘pro-independence’ and ‘anti-independence’ forces based on their political support? In voting politics, all parties, all candidates have to go to the voters of all parties and beg for votes. It has been proven time and again in Bangladesh that the consequences of being in power and wielding a sword on those who have to go down for five years are never good. Awami League leaders still claim online, on social media that there is no alternative to Awami League in Bangladesh. If they had investigated and self-criticized the causes of their self-inflicted disaster, learned from their mistakes, they would have thought a thousand times before making such a claim. The country is not about any party, but about the people.
Author: A senior journalist living in the United States
