Ehsanul Haque Jasim :
Most of the BNP senior leaders are keeping mum and also keeping distance from the party men due to ‘unknown reasons’ following the ‘one-sided’ January-5 elections.
Some senior leaders are not happy with party chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia, as she reprimanded them for their poor performance in the street movement ahead of the January-5 elections.
“Khaleda Zia believes that the common people responded to her call to resist the polls and the movement was intensified at the grassroots level, but the senior leaders and the leaders of the Dhaka city unit failed to exploit the situation in the city. For this reason, the opposition failed to resist the so-called one-sided elections,” said a BNP leader.
The party standing committee member Goyeshwar Chandra Roy expressed anger against some senior leaders of his party, saying that some of the party senior leaders are ‘betrayers’. Addressing a function in the city on Friday, he said that the BNP has to be freed from the notorious persons. Otherwise party will weaken day by day.
In this backdrop, Khaleda Zia is planning to bring major changes in the party’s different bodies, including the party’s apex body- standing committee and the Dhaka city committee. She wanted to reshuffle the city committee last month by bringing dedicated persons in it to intensify the movement for fresh polls. But a number of senior leaders, including ASM Hannan Shah, reportedly denied to take the responsibility of the city committee. So the process is being delayed, sources said.
Some senior leaders went into hiding before the elections to avoid arrest. Most of them are on bail in different cases. Some of the senior leaders are still not available on
telephone or cell phone and the party men cannot reach them. “We cannot reach our senior leaders in party meetings or other public functions,” said a junior level leader of the party.
BNP standing committee members Dr RA Gani, M Shamsul Islam, Tariqul Islam and Begum Sarwari Rahman are inactive on health grounds while Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Barrister Moudud Ahmed, Brig Gen (Retd) ASM Hannan Shah, Mirza Abbas are inactive for ‘unknown reasons’.
Tarique Rahman is in London and Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury in detention while other members of the 19-member standing committee are inactive in the party activities. Dr Mosharraf, Barrister Moudud and some others were not available on cell phone. Dr Mosharraf’s personal secretary Shah Akhtaruzzaman said that the cell phone of his boss is on off mood for some days on personal grounds.
The party acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir is appearing before the media occasionally. But the party joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed is, however, always available. Khaleda Zia is reportedly not quite happy also with Mirza Fakhrul for his poor performance. Rizvi Ahmed said that Mirza Fakhrul is sincerely working for the party.
A senior leader of the party, requesting anonymity said that their party chief takes decision after discussion with some former bureaucrats and her personal assistants. “As we are not discussed fir talking any decision, so we find less interest in party activities,” he said.
While talking to The New Nation, several mid-level leaders said that young, energetic and dedicated leadership is now needed to intensify anti-government movement. Most of the senior leaders are now inactive and they should be replaced by dedicated and tested leaders to give dynamism in the party leadership at different levels, they added.
