Abdur Rahman Khan Facing manifold pressures from inside and outside, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the main opposition in Bangladesh, has geared up its pprogramme to revamp the party organisation in line with the suggestions received from grassroots consultation.
After the debacle in the general elections on December 28, BNP opted for soul-searching and consultation with the grassroots leaders to assess the causes of failure. Under a central plan, BNP held review meetings with the leaders of district, upazila and union levels in groups during the month of February.
Six central groups were formed to compile the reports for six divisions. The reports have already been submitted to party Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia. Only last week, she initiated meetings with senior leaders to review the divisional reports.
Nepotism, opportunism
According to party sources, the grassroots leaders have attributed party's failure to weak organisational performance, corruption and nepotism by BNP ministers and MPs. They also reported to the central leadership that the dedicated and honest workers and leaders at local level were ignored allowing the corrupt and opportunists to run the show during BNP's tenure in the government.
The grassroots leaders suggested reorganising the party units through election of honest and dedicated leadership at all level. They opposed any interference from the top in electing local committees.
During the consultation meetings, many BNP grassroots leaders expressed their displeasure over the electoral alliance with Jamaat saying that BNP being a centrist and liberal democratic party had to pay heavily for the stigma Jamaat was inheriting since the liberation of the country.
Meanwhile, BNP has decided to dissolve soon its 75 district committees, all ineffective and date-expired, by assigning ad hoc committees to prepare for the council and elect a regular committee. The party has also printed new membership forms to collect fresh members keeping in view the councils of union, upazila and district units in next few months.
After reorganising the lower level committees, BNP will take preparation for holding national council by July 25, the dateline agreed while getting registration from the Election Commission last year.
Council after 14 years
According to party constitution, the national council is supposed to be held after every two years. The last council of BNP was held in 1993 and for last 14 years the party has been functioning under a date-expired central executive committee. By this time, many of the central executive members have died, some expelled and many turned reformists, opportunists and 'undesirable'.
There is a growing demand within the party to reorganise the highest policy-making body, standing committee, that expelled a stalwart like Tanveer Ahmed Siddiqui only last week for a highly controversial action against the party chairperson.
Govt's repression
Meanwhile, Governent's repressions are also mounting on BNP with many of its workers and leaders being killed, thrown behind the bars, implicated on flimsy charges and hostile atmosphere inside the parliament.
The standing committee in its meeting on March 23 reviewed the situation that BNP leaders and organizers were currently facing. If the situation continued to aggravate, BNP may be compelled to opt for taking the course of movement, the meeting observed.
"The government is pushing the opposition to take to the street", BNP standing committee member Lt Gen (rtd) Mahbubur Rahman said adding that "the government has started repression on the opposition. A former deputy speaker was arrested on a silly and flimsy issue".
Former Deputy Speaker and BNP leader Akhter Hamid Siddiqui was arrested under Special Powers Act for "seditious statement". Ahead of the parliamentary by-election, a probe committee was formed against former Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar who is contesting from a Bogra seat vacated by Begum Zia.
BNP leadership observes that the Government is trying to keep them under pressure so that they can not go for any immediate agitation or cash in on the public discontent generated out of government failures.
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