Political heat now reaches parliament

Jatiya Sangsad (Parliament)
File photo

The politics of the country is being heated up for the last two months. It started with Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s series of rallies protesting the price hike of fuel oil and other essential commodities and the obstacles created in their rallies.

It has now boiled over to ‘controlling’ the street. Whether the situation would affect the Jatiya Sangsad (parliament) has now become a talking point.

Alongside flexing the muscle of organisational strength on the street by Awami League and BNP, the issue of resigning from parliament came to the fore on Saturday.

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BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in BNP’s divisional rally in Rangpur said their only demand is the resignation of the government and election (12th Jatiya Sangsad election) be held under a neutral government.

He also said the party’s lawmakers are ready to resign from parliament anytime soon and are waiting for the party’s signal to this end.

AL general secretary Obaidul Quader on Sunday replied that the resignation of only seven BNP MPs would not be a problem since parliament will not dissolve if they do so.

Within just 10 hours of Obaidul Quader’s speech, Jatiya Party announced the decision not to join the parliament session from today, Monday. The parliament session started Sunday. However, they took the decision from a different point of view.

I don’t know about Jatiya Party but we have taken to the streets with a specific goal
BNP standing committee member Iqbal Hasan Mahmud

The JaPa, which has 26 members in parliament, said they would not join parliament until the party chief GM Quader is not made opposition leader removing Roushan Ershad.

AL presidium member and agriculture minister Abdur Razzak thinks the JaPa decision would not bring about any major political crisis.

He told Prothom Alo, “This has been created out of Jatiya Party’s internal conflict. I think they would resolve this issue upon discussion among themselves.”

Although AL leaders are downplaying the situation, it is evident that politics is heating up in the country. AL’s massive gathering centring Dhaka district council on the same day of BNP’s rally in Rangpur is being seen as a show of their organisational strength.

The two main political parties have started to demonstrate their power of agitation even 14 months before the next general election. AL has called programmes in the days of BNP’s divisional mass rallies.

BNP will hold its Barishal divisional rally on 5 November while AL would hold its Cumilla city unit council on the same day. AL, however, does not agree that they are holding counter rallies and maintain that these programmes are routine ones.

Now the discussion is centred on whether the ongoing political commotion would stretch till the next general election.

BNP standing committee member Iqbal Hasan Mahmud, however, told Prothom Alo on Sunday night, “I don’t know about Jatiya Party but we have taken to the streets with a specific goal. All our lawmakers would resign to give impetus to the ongoing movement. Because we want the parliament to be dissolved.”