We must say people’s spontaneous reaction was natural as Mayors Ariful Haque Chowdhury of Sylhet and Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul of Rajshahi had just regained their posts after a long legal battles for about two years. It should be mentioned that the two Mayors, along with the Mayors of Khulna and Gazipur were first suspended in May, 2015. The government had even arrested and sent them to jail on various criminal charges.
It was alleged during those days that since these Mayors had defeated the Awami League nominated candidates in the City Corporation elections and the BNP had won in six out of eight city Corporations, the government became mad for retaliation. As a result the pro-BNP Mayors and Councillors were either suspended or charge-sheeted and sent to jails. Through this undemocratic and fascist process almost all the pro-BNP elected representatives in fact lost their posts. At the same time the government started to fill the posts by AL Councillors and a peculiar name of ‘Panel Mayor’ was invented for them. In fact these so-called ‘Panel Mayors’ have managed the City Corporations till the recent days.
Then began the legal battles. But in spite of Higher Court’s judgments and orders in favour of the suspended pro-BNP Mayors, the government did not reinstate them. The Mayors, including especially Professor M. A. Mannan of Gazipur, were rather tortured physically and charge sheeted with new criminal cases. The stories of the Mayors of Rajshahi, Sylhet and Habiganj have come as the latest instances of that process. The country’s highest court had issued orders in their favour and they were about to resume works as Mayors with the court’s orders.
But the government did not allow them to take over their responsibilities. Not only that, the Mayors of Rajshahi and Sylhet could not even sit on their chairs for more than 15 minutes! Both were most unceremoniously ousted and again charge-sheeted for criminal offences. So they could not resume their works for which they had been elected by the people. With the intention of ‘legalizing’ the actions the government has again brought in front and taken shelter of the two clauses of the Local Government (City Corporation) Act 2009.
Under these clauses a Mayor or Councillor, if charge-sheeted in criminal cases, can be suspended. The Mayor of Rajshahi has been told that as the Mohanagar Special Court-1 had accepted a criminal charge sheet against him so the government had decided to suspend him. Similarly the Sylhet Mayor was told about a charge sheet that had been accepted by the Sunamganj Special Court. So he would also have to go. On the other hand the Mayor of Habiganj, G. K. Gaus has been charge sheeted in the case of attempting to murder the late AL leader Suranjit Sengupta.
With the developments of the incidents above mentioned another interesting fact has also emerged. In spite of many specific allegations and cases no elected representatives of the AL has been charge sheeted or arrested under the two clauses of the ‘famous'(!) Local Government (City Corporation) Act 2009. Only the pro-BNP representatives have been victimized under the Act. This kind of attitude is not only victimisation of the Opposition but showing disrespect to people’s vote.
It is unfortunate that there are advisers around the government who are doing everything to destroy the democratic structure of the government.
