BNP splits over stance against India

For over two weeks now, the secretary general of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), along with its standing committee members and top leaders, has refrained from participating in the party's street programmes. This absence has sown seeds of discontent within the party, leading to a growing disconnect between high-ranking leaders and grassroots members.

Amid scorching heat, numerous grassroots leaders, including the party's senior joint secretary general, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, have been tirelessly distributing clean drinking water and saline to labourers. Conversely, frontline leaders remain conspicuously absent, confined to their residences. Reliable sources within the party hint at a split emerging over the anti-India stance.

Policymakers of the BNP are facing diverse diplomatic pressures, with a notable faction of standing committee members aligning in support of India. In this line are BNP's Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Standing Committee members Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Abdul Moin Khan and Salauddin Ahmed. These six have openly commented in the party that it would be a wrong decision for the BNP to take an anti-India stance and participate in the programme to boycott Indian products. Even if India is against the BNP today, it will be in Favor of the BNP today or tomorrow. 

On the other hand, other standing committee members of the party such as Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Mirza Abbas, and Nazrul Islam Khan have strategically asked the party to consider what the people want. The party's senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, chairperson's adviser Zainal Abedin Faruk and others have made their stance clear by supporting the social movement to boycott Indian goods. Gayeshwar Chandra Roy also supports taking an anti-India stance. The issue of boycotting Indian products was discussed extensively at the BNP's standing committee meeting on March 25. However, no decision was made on the India issue at that meeting. Although the issue was supposed to be discussed at the next meeting, no decision was made at the latest meeting either.

Two members of the party's policy-making forum told The Daily Messenger that Ruhul Kabir Rizvi and Zainal Abedin Faruk were warned by the party's acting chairman, Tariq Rahman, over the phone. They were asked to be cautious about making anti-India statements in public. In the meantime, one leader told Tariq Rahman that if they remain silent now when the majority of people in the country have taken an anti-India stance, the BNP may become disconnected from the people. The angry leader said, “I have been in politics for so long for the sake of the people. If speaking for the people is considered anti-India, then you can expel me from the party.” 

However, a large part of the party is surprised by Tariq Rahman's sudden ‘U-turn’ and sees an ulterior motive behind it. Because according to most, no green signal was given for protesting by burning Indian clothes or for other leaders to speak up without instructions. 

They also said that a large portion of the standing committee is pro-India, and many have connections with the government – an allegation that has been around for a long time. They believe that after a section of the BNP expressed support for the social movement, the issue of pressure from different factions of the party has become clear again.

Reliable BNP leaders informed that four days after Rizvi expressed anger and set fire to an Indian shawl, Indian diplomats in Dhaka attended the BNP's Iftar party. Previously, the party had invited India to many of its events, but India did not respond. For a decade and a half, the BNP has tried to please India, but India's mind has not been swayed.

 Most recently, before the 12th parliamentary elections, the BNP-Jamaat alliance's programme under a single banner was not finalised due to India's signal. Islamists were not included in the anti-fascist student unity. After Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, a member of the party's standing committee, and other Jamaat-e-Islami leaders were hanged for war crimes, the BNP remained silent at India's signal. The unity with Dr Kamal Hossain in the 11th parliamentary elections while keeping Khaleda Zia in jail was also done at India's behest. The BNP's Vision 2030 included pleasing India in the state reform section. Even after doing so much, the BNP has not received any favour from India for more than a decade and a half.

An executive committee member of the party, who did not wish to be named, said, “In this region, the Awami League (AL) is the political party trusted by India. It would be wrong for us to expect them to trust the BNP. A large portion of our policymakers are pinning their hopes on the United States, and it is unthinkable that the United States will ever play a role against India.”

BNP Standing Committee member Selima Rahman told The Daily Messenger, “The BNP high command has not openly taken a stance against India. Party leaders have said that India has supported the ruling AL. Everyone knows this.”

She advised them to consider why the people of the country are taking a stance against India. This BNP leader informed that the party works based on Bangladesh's foreign policy of maintaining friendship with all.

BNP's special secretary Asaduzzaman Ripon told The Daily Messenger, “Since the BNP boycotted the elections, the people of the country also did not go to the polling centres. At that time, the AL secretary asked where the BNP's source of courage was. In fact, the source of BNP's strength and courage is the people of the country. He quoted Obaidul Quader, “We are there, India is there; India is there, we are there.” He (Obaidul Quader) has made it clear that this government and party have India behind them. They (AL) have claimed this election victory as India's victory.”

He further added, “I think even Indian leaders and citizens are embarrassed by such statements. This government is not a people-backed government; it is a government under India's shelter. This cannot be a characteristic of any respectable party. The people of the country have reminded them of this.”

Rana Dasgupta, General Secretary of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad, told The Daily Messenger, “BNP's joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi has protested and expressed anger by throwing away his shawl, but this stance was not taken by the BNP's standing committee or high command. This makes it very clear that the BNP also does not want this issue to cause further agitation, nor does it want any distance to develop between it and the people or the party over India. I don't think the BNP will repeat the mistake it made once by not meeting Pranab Mukherjee with Khaleda Zia.”