The Fakhrul saga

Politics in Bangladesh never fails to amuse us. No vaudeville play writer could have scripted the saga of Fakhrul Islam Alamgir as well as we have seen the events played out in his life in the last six or so years since he was made the 'acting secretary general' of the BNP. It must have come as a great relief to the gentleman to have been anointed as the substantive party secretary general of the BNP.

The day, we presume, shall be remembered by Fakhrul as much for its auspiciousness, made so by his being relieved of the weight of 'acting' as the party chief executive, as for the burlesque nature of the things that followed his elevation in rank in the party. We are at a loss to rationalise the events we saw from the time the announcement of the new party appointments till Fakhrul's landing in jail after being denied bail in connection with two cases of violence in January 2015, and then given bail on health grounds only a few hours later. And very soon after he walked out of jail on health grounds, he was at the party office to thank his party chief. 

The BNP secretary general is unique in another sense being perhaps the only secretary general of a major party with as many as 80 litigations instituted by the government against him, most of them on very inane and ludicrous grounds. And in between the times since 2011, he has enjoyed the hospitality of the prison authorities for 323 days.

We would like to see an end to people making farce of the system. The legal system should neither be made light of nor misused to chastise political opponents.