The nation is poised to suffer from politics of revenge, rivalry and confrontations for long since the political heir to the two top leaders-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and former Premier Begum Khaleda Zia-Sajib Wazed Joy and Tarique Rahman bent to continue hatred in the future.
Political observers said this on Wednesday referring to BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman’s latest comment about Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family, which furthered hatred and bitterness between the two major political parties-ruling Awami League (AL) and main opposition BNP, sending a signal that there was no possibility of any rapprochement between them in the future.
Although a number of BNP leaders claimed that the comments of Tarique, the elder son and political heir to Khaleda Zia, came as a reaction to the recent statement made by Prime Minister’s son and political heir apparent Sajib Wazed Joy, who does not hold any office in the AL but his portrait is being shown in the party’s official website along with the portraits of Bangabandhu and Sheikh Hasina.
Tarique, popularly known as Tareque Zia in the BNP circles, on Monday told a London seminar that Bangabandhu and Sheikh Hasina are ‘killers’ and the AL was a party of ‘disgraced people.’
“Tarique Rahman said this in reply to Sajib Wazed Joy, who had recently termed Khaleda Zia as a ‘killer’ and BNP as a party of terrorists,” BNP Secretariat member and former MP Moazzem Hossain Alal, who is also the President of BNP’s youth wing-Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal told this correspondent.
A BNP Standing Committee member, who pleaded not to disclose his name publicly, expressed deep shock at Tarique’s comment while talking to The New Nation on Wednesday.
“Staying at a safer place in London far away from rude realities of the country, Tarique Rahman is vitiating the political atmosphere of Bangladesh by making controversial statements one after another at a regular interval and his comments are isolating the party from saner elements of the society,” he regretted.
The BNP policymaker said, “Tarique knows well that his father made the declaration of independence in the name and on behalf of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on March 27 in 1971 from Chittagong radio station.”
“When he was President, Zia in an article published in vernacular Weekly Bichitra, ‘We fought Liberation War in the name of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib, who was the President of the Bangladesh Provisional government that was led by Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmed,” he said, adding, “Tarique contradicted Zia’s writing by terming him the first President of Bangladesh.”
Noted historian Prof Dr Ahmed Kamal, who teaches Political History in Dhaka University, referred to the Indo-Pakistan developments following the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi under the leadership Rajib Gandhi and Benzir Bhutto.
“When Rajib Gandhi had take oath as Indian Prime Minister on October 31 in 1984, Pakistani Prime Minister Benzir Bhutto immediately congratulated him through telephone,” he said, adding, “Some world leaders and international strategic analysts welcomed it with an optimism South Asia was going to change since both of them were new generation leaders.”
He said Rajib and Benzir had pursue politics different than their predecessors premiers Indira Gandhi and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, their mother and father respectively. And they had very good relation with each other. But things are different in Bangladesh.
“Like Rajib and Benzir, Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia came to politics following the brutal killings of their political predecessors-Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Ziaur Rahman-their father and husband respectively,” he said, adding, “Hasina and Khaleda only taken the pains not legacy of their predecessors. They simply instill revenge and hatred in their sons unlike Benzir and Rajib.”
