Author: Udayan Namboodiri
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: December 16, 2005
On the anniversary of its birth, Bangladesh
is gradually returning to its blood-dipped origins, says
As Bangladesh prepares to celebrate its 35th
"Victory Day" on December 16, Bangladeshis are on the verge of losing
their hard won uniqueness in the Islamic world for which three million people
died in 1971. Democracy, liberal culture and even the Bengali language for
which they struggled since 1951, are now under siege.
Shaking the fundamentals of their nationhood
are the same elements who tried to crush the indomitable Bengali spirit in
collusion with the Pakistanis during the bloody months that preceded the first
"Victory Day". Ten years back, at the time of the silver jubilee,
Bangladeshis recalled their glorious Mukti Juddha (liberation struggle) and
collectively sought to revive that ethos in order to put the dark memories
of the first two decades behind them. But today, a sense of hopelessness grips
the national psyche.
The country is in the grip of state-abetted
Islamist fundamentalism and terrorism is a fact of life. The Prime Minister
and chairman of the main party of the ruling Four Party Alliance (FPA), the
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Begum Khaleda Zia, is readying for next
year's election and appears to be in no mood to reverse the situation which
can only happen if she breaks her alliance with the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI),
the political godfather of the jihadis.
There are signs, however, that Begum Khaleda
no longer carries the BNP fully with her. Cracks are beginning to show in
the party's unity. A senior BNP leader and member of its national standing
committee, KM Obaidur Reheman, recently told the media that a "specific
power" which had conducted "destructive activities" during
1971 has "risen again". He called on the people to jointly face
the challenge. Obaidur Reheman did not leave much to the imagination. No prizes
for guessing the identity of this "specific power": He meant Pakistan,
whose not-so-covert role in undermining national unity is now a settled fact.
The presence of Pakistani collaborators like
Salauddin Qader Choudhary and Haris Choudhary in the circle around Begum Zia
has reinforced this conviction. Nobody in Bangladesh denies that the JeI is
Pakistan's Trojan Horse. Now, the BNP has a large presence of former freedom
fighters who had either fought under Begum Zia's late husband, Ziaur Rahman,
against the Pakistanis or had deserted the Awami League in frustration over
its leader, Sheikh Hasina's, intemperance. These elements have had enough
of Begum Zia's nexus with the ISI. Being freedom fighters themselves, they
recall the Pakistani atrocities and realise the ISI's place as an independent
power centre in Pakistan. If it can defy General Pervez Musharraf with impunity,
what chance does Begum Zia have when it decides to destroy Bangladesh?
Another senior leader and Member of Parliament,
Mr Abu Hena, went public recently with an accusation that left nothing to
the imagination. He not only reiterated the charge that the Khaleda regime
is sponsoring Islamist terror, but also specifically named Minister for Industries
in the FPA Government Matiur Reheman Nizami as an agent. Begum Zia moves swiftly
to expel him from the party. But fear of disciplinary action did not deter
another senior BNP MP and freedom fighter, Col (Retd) Oli Ahmed, to make similar
accusations. He is yet to be expelled from the party.
These leaders represent saner elements within
the BNP, who are now admitting that it was a mistake to take the JeI as a
partner in the last election. It may not be long before demands start piling
up for Begum Zia to break out of the Islamist trap and go it alone in the
2006 poll. But hardliners and neophytes, who fear an alternative to the status
quo, are sure to act as a counter-weight to these old nationalists. Health
Minister Khondekar Hasharraf Hossain recently told the Bangladeshi media that
"this kind of talk" was in line of the Awami League strategy to
break the ruling coalition and was "not acceptable".
Against a foreground made up of typical election-year
manouvering, Pakistan is slowly but surely moving to consolidate its grip
over the national polity. Islamist fundamentalism and terrorism are not overnight
phenomena in Bangladesh. They are key elements of "Operation Garland",
a strategy planned and crafted in Islamabad to not only rule Bangladesh through
proxy, but also open up an eastern front against Pakistan's primal enemy,
India.
The operational plan was to break Jammu &
Kashmir and western Bangladesh away from India's influence to promote secessionists
in the Northeast from bases in Bangladesh. That national policy has endured
through all the coups and upheavals faced by Pakistan because, to its ruling
elite, all domestic turmoil is secondary to the focus on emasculating India
by fomenting terrorism.
The run-up to the Bangladeshi election will
undoubtedly see the revival of the "India issue", which had been
the mainstay of Begum Khaleda's campaigns in 1991 and 1996, but, surprisingly,
had vanished from her agenda in 2001. This time, she has coolly passed on
the blame for the deteriorating internal security situation by linking the
Awami League with general Bangladeshi paranoia over India's "Hindu designs".
The Awami is broadly identified with the Hindu
vote. The JeI's madarsa network has successfully spread this message to the
nooks and corners of Bangladesh. The most serious charge against Bangladeshi
Hindus, and, by extension, India, for terrorism in Bangladesh, came from BNP
Minister of State for Home Affairs, Mr Lutfuzzaman Babar. On December 8 ,
a suicide attack took place in front of the office of a progressive cultural
organisation in Netrakona, Babbar's constituency.
Providentially for Mr Babar and the pro-Pakistani
lobby, a Hindu, Jabab Biswas, died in the explosion among others. Although
eyewitnesses said the suicide bomber came on a bicycle and exploded himself,
Home Minister Babar pounced on this opportunity to use a poor Hindu, a bicycle
mechanic, to declare to international and national media the Hindu element
in Bangladesh's terrorism.
Babar's political articles may be a poor effort
to obfuscate the scourge of Islamist terrorism and divert attention. Educated
Bangladeshis are unlikely to buy this story. But there is a dangerous side
to this pantomime.
The anti-India and pro-Pakistan elements in
the Government and their militant allies have been priming the Imams against
terrorism, but with an angle. Babar has given them one by opening a disingenuous
campaign that Bangladeshi Hindus, along with the Awami League, are "infiltrating"
religious organisations to turn them into terrorists so that Islam and the
FPA regime may be denigrated. This might sound an incredible theory, but it
can cut ice with Bangladesh's fundamentalist vote-bank.
For Begum Zia, Babar and his ilk are coming
in handy to shore up her plummeting popularity. But, the BNP has no endgame
in sight. Pakistan and its ally, JeI Bangladesh, have theirs. Put mildly,
Bangladesh is in for a replay of 1971. India must respond pro-actively. And
there are no soft options.
