UNB, Dhaka :
Still struggling to catch up in the post-election politics, BNP now has set a target to have a positive outcome from its ongoing anti-government movement within the next three months as the party leaders feel mid-October to mid-January is climatically a very suitable time for giving their movement a final shape.
Senior party leaders said though they failed to realise their demand through their last year’s decisive movement waged during the same period due to their some wrong strategies, this time they will be able to reach the goal with a well-thought-out plan.
They said, they will start their movement with some peaceful action programmes like, rally, countrywide vigorous mass campaign, human chain, sit-in and road march, to force the government to engage in talks for holding a fresh election.
If that does not work and the government obstructs their programmes, they will then take harsher street programmes like non-stop hartal, blockade, and non-cooperation.
A BNP policymaker, wishing not to be name, said their party chairperson Khaleda Zia is very confident that there will be a fresh general election early next year and she has already asked her senior leaders to prepare a comprehensive strategy for both the movement and the possible election.
He said, they have already worked out a three-month roadmap for the movement which will be elaborately discussed and finalised at the party’s standing committee meeting soon.
As per the strategy, he said, the decisive movement will be waged in early January and its duration is unlikely to be more than two weeks.
“Autumn and winter (mid-Oct to mid-Jan) are a very suitable time for any movement. All the successful and big movements in the past had been carried out in Bangladesh during the period. Now rainy season is almost over. There’s little possibility of any natural disaster like flood or storm in the next three to four months. So, we’ve a plan to use this time for making our movement a success,” said BNP standing committee member Lt Gen Mahbubur Rahman.
He said, they want the government to engage in dialogue with BNP for resolving the prolonged political deadlock, but the government is not paying heed to their repeated calls for talks. “We’re still eager to find a reasonable and peaceful solution to the problem.”
Mahbub said, they will initiate their movement from mid-October with soft programmes, including countrywide mass campaign, human chain, sit-in and road march, to pile pressure on the government to concede to their demand.
“We won’t have any option but to take harsher programmes like hartal blockade and non-cooperation if the government blocks our movement and continues its repressive acts. The more they will repress and obstruct us the tougher will be our movement. In fact, the nature of our movement and its severity will depend on the government’s attitude and action,” he said.
The BNP leader said their party standing committee will sit in a meeting very soon to finalise their movement strategy and line of actions.
Echoing Mahbub, another BNP standing committee member Hannan Shah also said they, as per their commitment of waging a movement after Eid-ul-Azha, will initiate it with peacefully programmes on different issues and a widespread mass campaign. “It’ll turn violent if the government doesn’t change its uncompromising and repressive stance.”
He said, though the ruling party is now unwilling to engage in talks over a fresh election, it will soon change its position realising the pulse of people. “No party can remain power for an indefinite period ignoring people’s hopes and aspirations. They must concede to our demand in the face of the movement.”
Both Mahbub and Hannan recognised that their pre-January 5 movement did not yield the desired results due to some wrong strategies and organisational weakness in the Dhaka city unit of BNP.
“We learn from our mistakes. We made some mistakes in the previous movement. But we’ve already identified those and devised a new plan. A new convening committee of Dhaka City BNP has been formed. The committee is working hard to strengthen the unit. We’ve our own plan and we hope this time we’ll be successful,” said Hannan Shah.
On September 30, BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia sat with top leaders of her party-led 20-party alliance and worked out their next course of action.
Most alliance leaders suggested Khaleda to carry out a mass campaign programme just after Eid before going for a tougher movement. They also focused on movement on some issues relating to public interests to create a ground for the tougher agitation.
