Fresh crisis in BNP

The opposition BNP has been facing further drift since its meeting on Monday.

Khaleda Zia at the meeting, convened suddenly after a long gap, warned senior leaders against talking about the party's internal issue in public. She did not cite anybody's name.

Some senior leaders who attended the meeting think she used the meeting as a means to gag criticism against the way the party is being run.

"She [Khaleda] indirectly accused some senior leaders of splitting the party. This has sent a negative message to our party leaders across the country," a member of the party’s national standing committee told The Daily Star wishing anonymity.

The meeting exposed some unpleasant things existed within the party, he said.

Another senior leader said he had expected that the meeting would discuss the prevailing political situation and ways to overcome the crisis the party has been going through. But it was not the focus of the meeting, he said.

"It would have been better had the meeting not been held," he said in a frustration.

Another member of the standing committee declined to make any comment. He even asked this correspondent not to mention his name as if no conversation with him took place.

Entangled with various crises, the BNP, which ran the country twice – from 1991-96 and 2001-2006 – has become almost dysfunctional. 

The prevailing situation had prompted some senior leaders to vent their frustrations at the way the party was being run. In their private and, sometimes, public programmes, they expressed their resentment.

Recently, a telephone conversation of three senior BNP leaders was leaked on YouTube. In their conversation, they expressed frustration at the present BNP leadership.  

A number of leaders also questioned whether the BNP is now deviating from the ideology of its founder, Ziaur Rahman. 

In this backdrop, Khaleda Zia asked party's senior leaders at Monday's meeting to make comments carefully. She also said that if anybody thought about splitting the party, he might leave the party now, according to meeting sources. 

After she expressed her resentment, none of the senior leaders felt comfortable to discuss anything at the meeting, said the sources, adding that leaders of some professional bodies however spoke, expressing their support to Khaleda.  

The BNP has been facing worst crisis in its history. After boycotting the January 5 parliamentary election in 2014, the party also announced to resist it. It however failed to do so even though it waged a violent street agitation. The election boycott left the party outside of the parliament for the first time since restoration of parliamentary democracy in 1991.

The party chief again announced a nonstop countrywide blockade from January 6 this year. Alongside the blockade, the BNP-led political combine also enforced mindless hartal for around three months since January to topple the government. The agitation turned violent again.

But the movement failed to force the Sheikh Hasina-led government to announce an early parliamentary election under a non-party caretaker government.

The agitations waged before and after the January 5 polls has brought nightmare for the party's leaders. Almost all of the senior leaders are facing criminal cases filed against them in connection of street violence and arson attacks on public transports. Many of them are now facing arrest warrants. BNP acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, whom police detained on January 5, is still fighting to manage his release on bails.

The situation in the grassroots level is more appalling. Numerous number of grassroots-level leaders are facing cases. Many of them are still behind the bars. Those who are outside the jail cannot move freely due to the cases and harassment by the law enforcement agencies, let alone carry out political activities.

Frustrated at the prevailing situation, several thousand of the grassroots-level leaders and activists have already joined the ruling Awami League over the last three months. 

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced in the parliament that her government would form special tribunal under the Anti-Terrorism Act 2009 to hold trial of Khaleda Zia and her party men accused in the arson attacks carried out during the opposition movement between January and March this year. 

Yet, the party high command has not taken any steps to stand by the grassroots level leaders and activists.

Khaleda Zia and some of her party's leaders have recently been speaking for reorganising the BNP. But their words appear as rhetoric as there was no organsied move in this regard.

At Monday’s meeting, Khaleda however told the party senior leaders – members of the national standing committee, vice-chairmen, and her advisors – that she would recast the party giving leadership to the dedicated leaders who played important role in the street agitations. She also asked senior leaders to stand by the grassroots-level leaders.

A senior BNP leader said the party chief told them that she would visit Saudi Arabia for performing Umrah and sit with the senior leaders on her return.

Khaleda was scheduled for leaving Dhaka on Wednesday. But she postponed her visit as Saudi Embassy in London did not issue a visa to Tarique Rahman, elder son of Khaleda and also senior vice-president of BNP.

Citing the postponement of her visit, the senior BNP leader said: "Now, I do not know when she will sit again with the party senior leaders."