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News Analysis

An ominous sign in politics

Shakhawat Liton
The unenviable situations that veteran politicians Syed Ashraful Islam and Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir find themselves in is unprecedented in the country's politics since the restoration of parliamentary democracy in 1991.
Ashraf, general secretary of ruling Awami League, was stripped of his LGRD minister's portfolio last Thursday while Fakhrul - Ashraful's counterpart in rival BNP - is under arrest since January 5. No general secretary of either party has ever remained detained for so long since 1991. Languishing in jail since then, he has been struggling to get bails.
Firstly, take the case of Ashraftil. None of the general secretaries of any party in power had faced such a situation in the past.
Even worse, after his removal from the ministerial job, it is questionable if he can complete his general secretary tenure that ends in December.
Media reports say some senior ministers of the government worked long to convince Hasina to remove Ashraf from his job.
Ashrafs inactivity as minister and the party's general secretary seems to have helped his political foes to press with their agenda.
The general secretary of the ruling party is now a minister without portfolio. This means Ashraf still gets all state facilities as a minister but does not have any work to do. Nothing can be more uncomfortable for Ashraf, who is reputed to be an honest and dignified politician.
In the meantime, much before
Ashrafs downfall, Fakhrul's fortune took a turn for the worse.
Ninety criminal cases have been slapped on him in connection with street violence during BNP's January to April agitation against the government. He has been charged with planning and instigating the violence, torching vehicles and other offences.
Since 2012, Fakhrul has been behind bars several times and he got out on bails, but not this time.
Filing politically motivated cases against opponents is nothing new, at least in Bangladesh. But the arrest of Fakhrul in 2012 was a surprise. No politician of his stature from the two rival parties - AL and BNP - had to face a situation like this over the last two decades.
Whenever they were in power in turn since 1991, each of the two parties used cases and arrests of senior and mid-level opposition leaders to suppress anti-government movements.
The rule of the game was-none would arrest each other's president and secretary general, the top two leaders.
Even when the then BNP-led government launched a crackdown on the opposition in 2004, it did not arrest AL general secretary Abdul Jalil, who had
famously given the April 30 deadline for the fall of the BNP government.
But things look different with the arrest of Fakhrul this time.
However his fate may be compared with the situation that prevailed during the army-backed caretaker government when the emergency regime had launched a crackdown on politicians.
During the emergency rule, AL chief Sheikh Hasina and Jalil were arrested and put behind bars. BNP chief Khaleda Zia also was locked away while her party's secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain, though not arrested, had to undergo harassment.
But Ashraf and Fakhrul's treatment during a democratic period is worrisome. It gives a wrong signal to other politicians who have clean images. The prevailing situation also shows that there is a complete lack of tolerance and decency in the country's politics.
This would be encouraging the confrontational political culture.
The humiliation and sufferings of Ashraf and Fakhrul are ominous sign in the country's politics. How can healthy politics shape up in this country with examples like this?