Perhaps for the first time in Bangladesh’s history, a political party has arranged training for its own leaders and activists to ensure that its specific programmes reach everyone, from urban citizens to marginalised communities. From 7 to 13 December, BNP provided training on eight topics to leaders and activists from its affiliated organisations as well as the main party.
The “Nation-Building Programme” functioned not only as a set of training workshops, but also, through these workshops, outlined in broad terms what the BNP, as a party, intends to do for the people in the public sphere. Through nine leaflets, the party has presented its future plans on issues such as health, education, women, farmers, employment, sports, imams and muezzins as well as leaders of other religions, climate and agriculture, corruption, and more.
Essentially, in every election held since Bangladesh’s independence, political parties have published manifestos outlining what they would do if elected. The BNP will likely publish its manifesto in due course as well. However, a manifesto is a fairly large booklet that usually contains detailed programmes. It is difficult to convey future plans to ordinary people through such a bulky publication. I believe that is why the BNP has undertaken this kind of innovative initiative, which I hope will prove quite effective.
Women: BNP has outlined a key framework for its core plan for women in the country and the kinds of initiatives it intends to take to improve their socio-economic conditions. This is the “Family Card.” By issuing this Family Card to the female head of a household, the party aims to empower women and make them self-reliant. It appears this will make a significant contribution for marginalised women, as the Family Card will provide monthly financial assistance or food support ranging from Tk 2,000 to Tk 2,500.
Health: The health-related leaflet seeks to provide guidelines to ensure that people receive primary healthcare and corruption-free medical services. Alongside a target of recruiting 100,000 new health workers, it proposes measures to improve service quality at union-, upazila-, and district-level health centres. A completely new initiative BNP plans to introduce is public–private partnerships to ensure that ordinary people can quickly access treatment for life-threatening and critical illnesses.
BNP founder and martyred President Ziaur Rahman once took a groundbreaking initiative through canal excavation programmes. The BNP has pledged to revive this canal excavation initiative.
It is often seen that cancer patients face long delays in getting chemotherapy or radiotherapy appointments at government hospitals, while in many cases equipment remains out of order. To ensure swift healthcare for such patients, the government would partner with private hospitals to provide services. Necessary policies would be adopted if BNP forms a government. The same approach would apply to other complex diseases. Arrangements would also be made to provide free medicines for primary healthcare, low-cost medicines for deadly diseases such as cancer, stroke, and diabetes, and, above all, to carry out science-based mosquito control and treatment programmes.
Agriculture: Special incentives for farmers have been offered, to varying degrees, by almost every government. However, this would be the first initiative to introduce a fully digitalised “Farmer Card.” This card would contain information on various government benefits, ensuring farmers are not exploited by middlemen. Through the card, farmers would be guaranteed fair prices for fertiliser, seeds, and pesticides; fair returns for agricultural produce; access to agricultural loans on easy terms; and agricultural insurance facilities. In addition, arrangements would be made to provide updated weather and market information through mobile apps. Crop healthcare services would also be digitalised. Fish farmers and livestock farmers would also be brought under this card system.
Employment: A vast segment of Bangladesh’s population, especially educated youth, remains outside employment. The BNP has placed major emphasis on employment in its plans. Through initiatives such as introducing international payment gateways including PayPal for freelancers; organising nationwide and campus-based innovation idea competitions for young people, with startup funds, training, and technical support for winners; adopting investment policies to make job creation easier and reducing bureaucratic hurdles for domestic and foreign investors; launching targeted employment programmes for the uneducated rural population, homemakers, the elderly, and the long-term unemployed; and ensuring merit-based government recruitment—the BNP plans to take immediate and effective steps to create 10 million jobs.
Education: With the slogan “Joyful education, skilled manpower, and a modern Bangladesh,” the plan outlines initiatives to modernise the education system. These include “one teacher, one tablet” at the primary and secondary levels; compulsory third-language education; establishment of multimedia classrooms; technical education for all; prioritising good health and nutrition; and ensuring improved economic and social status for both cadre and non-cadre teachers—aiming to make the education system student-friendly and teacher-friendly.
Climate and Environment: BNP founder and martyred President Ziaur Rahman once took a groundbreaking initiative through canal excavation programmes. The BNP has pledged to revive this canal excavation initiative. According to its priorities, 20,000 kilometres of canals and rivers would be re-excavated to ensure water flow. The party has also proposed the Teesta Barrage Development and Padma Barrage projects. To ensure pollution-free air, it plans to plant 250 million trees over five years. Through integrated waste management, initiatives would be taken to produce energy and organic fertiliser, and waste recycling would be promoted to keep the environment pollution-free.
Sports: Initiatives would be taken to make sports compulsory from Class Four. BNP previously launched talent hunts in music through the “Notun Kuri” programme. This time, through a “Notun Kuri Sports” programme, it plans to provide scholarships to talented student athletes aged 12 to 14. Other initiatives include plans to build sports villages with indoor facilities in all 64 districts; establish BKSP branches in every divisional city; ensure adequate playgrounds in all metropolitan areas and rural regions; provide sporting opportunities at national and international levels for people with special needs and the underprivileged; and appoint sports officers and physical education teachers in all upazilas—efforts aimed at taking the country’s sports sector to new heights.
Khatibs, Imams, Muezzins, and leaders of other religions: For the first time, arrangements would be made to provide monthly honorariums to khatibs, imams, and muezzins. Special allowances during religious festivals, skills-development training to create alternative employment opportunities, and initiatives to enhance their state recognition have been proposed. Monthly honorariums and festival allowances would also be provided to places of worship of other religions (Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, and others), ensuring equal benefits for all.
Through these eight leaflets, the BNP aims to present some of its flagship programmes to the public in a way that is easy to understand and communicate. A political party’s future largely depends on how effectively it can promote its people-oriented programmes in the public sphere, and electoral victory also depends significantly on public-friendly initiatives. The Family Card, Farmer Card, and public–private partnership-based healthcare system are all new additions in the context of Bangladesh.
I believe that proper implementation and success of these programmes would significantly transform the country’s socio-economic conditions.
This new form of electoral campaigning by the BNP will not remain confined to rhetoric alone. There is an expectation that, if elected, the party will implement these commitments to the people with the highest priority in a corruption-free environment and will continue people-oriented programmes.
* Salahuddin Ahmed Raihan is an engineer, columnist, and political analyst
contact@engr-salahuddin.com
* The views expressed are the author’s own.