Nahid's dig at Jamaat sparks political discussion

After the July uprising, the National Citizen Party (NCP) and Jamaat-e-Islami appeared to share similar positions on various reform-related issues.

But the picture changed suddenly after Jamaat signed the July National Charter, while the NCP refused to do so.

Nahid Islam’s Facebook post criticising Jamaat has stirred political discussion.

Despite apparent bonhomie between the two parties over the past year, observers are now curious why the NCP is suddenly criticising Jamaat. Some say the rift began over the signing of the July Charter.

The NCP’s position has been that it would not sign the July Charter until its legal basis is ensured. The party had earlier held informal talks with leaders of Jamaat and other parties over the issue. NCP leaders wanted Jamaat and several others to refrain from joining the signing ceremony.

The government and the Consensus Commission tried to persuade the NCP to sign the Charter. But on the night before the ceremony (16 October), the NCP announced it would not sign the Charter.

According to sources in both Jamaat and the NCP, on the morning of 17 October—the day of the signing ceremony—Jamaat’s Nayeb-e-Ameer Syed Abdullah Mohammad Taher phoned NCP convener Nahid Islam, urging him to attend the event. Nahid declined.

The July National Charter was signed on 17 October at the South Plaza of the National Parliament Building by 24 political parties, including the BNP and Jamaat. The NCP, though invited, did not attend. Many observers view the subsequent distance between Jamaat and the NCP as a direct fallout of that decision.

Nahid Islam, convener of the National Citizen Party (NCP), wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday afternoon that Jamaat-e-Islami’s ongoing campaign for proportional representation (PR) is nothing but a planned political deception.

In his verified Facebook post, Nahid wrote that the PR issue was deliberately brought forward to divert the National Consensus Commission’s reform agenda and national dialogue away from the real question of constitutional and state restructuring in light of the July uprising.

Calling Jamaat’s PR campaign a so-called movement, Nahid wrote that Jamaat had never participated in reform discussions either before or after the July uprising. He said the party offered no effective proposals, no constitutional perspective, and no commitment to a democratic republic.

Nahid further wrote that Jamaat’s sudden endorsement of the reform process under the National Consensus Commission was not born of genuine reformist intent but was instead a strategic infiltration—an act of political subversion disguised as reformism.

Nahid’s sharply worded post, written in English, added, “We sought to build a movement around such foundational reforms and to establish the legal framework of the July Charter through broad based national consensus. But Jamaat and its allies hijacked this agenda, reduced it to a technical PR issue and used it as a bargaining tool for their narrow partisan interests. Their motive was never reform; it was manipulation.”

No NCP leader had previously made such a direct public attack on Jamaat. When Prothom Alo contacted five senior NCP policymakers to understand the reason behind Nahid’s post, they said the party had engaged with Jamaat in ‘good faith,’ where there had been some level of shared understanding especially on issues of reform and justice.

However, they believe Jamaat has been attempting to infiltrate NCP’s grassroots and sabotage its organisation. According to them, Jamaat’s decision to sign the July Charter and its recent activities have created within the NCP a “sense of betrayal.” This, they said, is why they now want to expose Jamaat’s “political duplicity” publicly.

Jamaat is currently leading a movement with five demands, including the adoption of the PR system, and reportedly tried to include the NCP. But due to disagreement over some demands, the NCP ultimately stayed out.

One senior NCP leader said that the party has been seeking the ‘Shapla’ (Water Lily) as its electoral symbol. They had long believed the BNP was obstructing this. Recently, however, they learned that Jamaat, too, has been lobbying to prevent the NCP from getting the symbol.

This, he said, could be another reason behind Nahid’s post, alongside the NCP’s broader effort to establish its distinct political identity.

Prothom Alo tried several times to reach Nahid Islam by phone for comment on his post and the alleged rift with Jamaat, but he did not respond.

When asked about Nahid’s post and the growing distance between the two parties, Ariful Islam Adib, NCP’s senior joint convener, told Prothom Alo last night that big parties often try to pass off their double standards as political maturity. What NCP is trying to establish is that such cunningness does not serve the nation.

Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami has described Nahid Islam’s Facebook post as “vague and misleading.” In an official statement issued Sunday night, Jamaat said, “The nation does not expect such immature remarks from Nahid Islam.”

The statement was sent to the media by Ahsanul Mahboob Zubair, head of Jamaat’s Publicity and Media Department, and acting assistant secretary general.

The statement read that Nahid Islam’s criticism of Jamaat’s demand for a proportional representation system was “vague and misleading,” and his allegation that the movement was deceptive and politically manipulative was “entirely false and regrettable.”

Ahsanul Mahboob added, “We do not understand what he (Nahid Islam) is trying to imply by his remarks. The nation does not expect such immature statements from him.”

The statement further said that Jamaat had demonstrated its firm position both in the Consensus Commission’s discussions and on the streets in demanding a legal foundation for the July National Charter. “Therefore,” it added, “Nahid Islam’s remarks have no logical basis.”

Ahsanul Mahboob urged Nahid Islam to refrain from making such misleading statements.