Bangladesh Awami League is one of the oldest political parties in Bangladesh, going back to its ancestry in the post-partition Pakistan. In its treading a long path as an organisation, many people with illustrious backgrounds carried the responsibility as the general secretary of the party. Apparently the person who holds the post is the second-in-command of this large organisation.
Bongotaj Tajuddin Ahmad also carried out the responsibility as the general secretary of the Bangladesh Awami League and we all know his achievements. He led the nation in the months of bloodied liberation war when Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman remained behind the bars in Pakistan. And, then we have Mr. Obaidul Quader as the general secretary of the party now.
A movement of students and job seekers has been going on since 1 July seeking reforms in the quota system in the government jobs. As the spokesperson of the governing party, Mr. Quader has been speaking to the media about his party’s reactions to the everyday developments in the agitation from the very beginning.
During such a media briefing on 8 July, he provided a certain piece of information to the newspersons and asked them to check the veracity of that. He said that the top 31 leaders of the movement regarding quota in 2018 did not pass the civil service exams.
What message did he want to convey through this?
We like to believe there was no possibility of manipulating the exam results of top 31 leaders of the movement. But what point does he actually want to prove by dropping such information without giving any details like, how many of them took the test, how many of them crossed which part of the exams?
Did he mean only those people who could pass the civil service exams have the right to say anything about it? Or, did he mean the people who would lead in some movement must be able to enjoy the material benefits of the system after successfully leading the agitation to its goal? Could we say this is a healthy thought process?
Did the freedom fighters, while facing bullets of Pakistan army and for that matter imminent death in 1971, think that only they would enjoy the material benefits the country would offer if they win the war? Did they think only they would do businesses or jobs depriving others?
The liberation war of Bangladesh was a people’s war. That means many people joined in the process in many different forms, risking their lives, without hoping for any recognition and rewards. And it is well-nigh impossible to ascertain the actual number of freedom fighters in the country. Changes have been made through additions and subtractions in the list of freedom fighters for seven times in the country’s history so far. Not only this, the age, definition and yardstick to include a person as freedom fighter has been amended at least 11 times in the last 53 years. This presents the complexity to the matter of identifying a person as a freedom fighter as was the war, rather a people’s war.
The government, however, paid a monthly allowance to 219,758 freedom fighters in January 2023. At the same time, there are examples of people, who fought the war but did not take any certificate for their participation, hence did not get any allowance and died in the liberated Bangladesh.
The point is whatever Mr. Quader wanted to allude through his statement regarding the 31 top leaders of the quota reform movement in 2018 there are people, who wage the fight just to ensure equality and dignity of their future generations and people at large.
The question, though, remains - was this a personal thought of Mr. Obaidul Quader, the general secretary of one of the oldest political parties of the country, or a thought of his party?
If we go a bit far and ask, is this opinion regarding quota only or does this thought process cover many other policy-level decisions?