JaPa emerges as opposition party

Recently some Jatiya Party (JaPa) central leaders have come under media focus with their sharp criticism against the Awami League-led government. This wasn't the situation even six months ago.

JaPa organisers might have changed their tone after the demise of Hussain Muhammad Ershad, the party’s founding chairman and former head of a military-ruled government of Bangladesh. Their emergence as the ‘opposition’ has made political analysts curious about relations between JaPa and Awami League.

Despite being invited, JaPa has yet to send any representatives to the state programmes celebrating the golden jubilee of Bangladesh’s independence, party insiders said.

The 10-day celebration will continue till 26 March.

Some top organisers of JaPa explained that their participation in the programme would undermine their present stance against the government, which they claim is critical.

Addressing a meeting at JP central office in Banani on 13 March, JaPa chairman Ghulam Muhammed Quader claimed his party was no more a part of the AL-led 14-party alliance. “At present, Awami League doesn’t need Jatiya Party and vice versa,” he added.

JaPa is among the close and long-time political allies of Awami League. JaPa stood by Awami League during the 2014 national elections. Almost all the opposition parties of that time refused to take part in the elections. As Awami League had secured power for the second-consecutive term, JaPa shared some seats of treasury as well as opposition benches.

The alliance of AL-JaPa remained intact during the ‘controversial’ national elections in 2018. The unity helped JaPa to become the main opposition party in the parliament.

However, JaPa chairman GM Quader recently has been reiterating that a ‘constitutional autocracy’ is being rooted in the country, allowing concentration of power on a single ruler. “The ‘legitimate’ and ‘constitutional’ autocracy must be crushed,” Quader said at several meetings.

On 24 February, while Quader was addressing a discussion as the focal person of his 73rd birthday celebration, he said that his party was fully prepared to sacrifice anything for the well-being of the country and people.

He alleged, “People opposing the government cannot get employment or start a business. A single person holds the ultimate power of the state. This is surely not a democracy.”

An analysis on the contemporary speeches by the JaPa leaders reveals their stance against the ruling party. Their criticism of the government has been released to the news media, in contrast to the common practice of filtering ‘raw comments’ transpired at internal meetings.

Responding to questions, GM Quader told Prothom Alo, “The reason is clear. We need to tell the truth and stand by the people for the survival of our party. If we do not do our own politics, JaPa will not survive for long as a parasite. This is evident that Awami League is going to uproot the parasites.”

JaPa organisers are now critical on the electoral mechanism and the election commission.

GM Quader, addressing a meeting on 16 February, alleged that ruling party nominees had been showing their muscle power to influence the election results without facing any challenge by the administration. Consequently, we had to accept one-sided election results and elected representative from a single party, he said.

On 18 February, the JaPa chairman expressed his frustration, saying that Awami League had become a ‘superpower’ in the state system.

JP secretary general Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu questioned the recently held Chattogram City Corporation election. He said, “What happened in Chattogram in the name of election? People don’t want such an election marred by terror, anarchy and killing. Stop such farcical elections.”

Anisul Islam Mahmud, one of the JaPa co-chairmen, echoed Bablu. The Anisul-Bablu pair is well known as ‘pro-Awami League’ to the JP activists. When Ershad pulled himself out from the 2014 national election, Anisul and Bablu persuaded Raushan Ershad to bring JaPa to the polls.

Replying to questions in this regard, Ziauddin defined the meaning of an opposition party. “Opposition party must be critical of the ruling party. We have realised that as a political party, we must uphold the people’s interests. Otherwise, our politics is meaningless.”

JaPa leaders are significantly critical on the BNP too. They think that BNP is the main barrier for JaPa being identified as the main opposition.

Recently GM Quader criticised the chairperson of BNP, saying that the so-called ‘indomitable’ leader of BNP got bail as she had compromised with the government. On the other hand, BNP activists have little trust in BNP’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman.

Although the JP organisers have been denouncing the government’s faults since October-November of last year, there is no visible crackein the AL-JaPa alliance.

JaPa high command thinks that the next national election in 2023 would not be similar to the previous two national elections. The current critical position of the JaPa organisers is a nothing but a tactic to prepare their activists to replace the regime with a democratically elected government.

*This report, originally published in online and print editions of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Sadiqur Rahman