Grassroots leaders blame BNP bigwigs for hartal failure

Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s mid and grassroots level leaders blamed its senior leaders for their failure to stage street agitation during Sunday’s hartal in Dhaka.

The BNP on Saturday evening called the hartal protesting against what they alleged as farcical city elections that witnessed low turnout, vote rigging, violence, muscle-flexing as well as Awami League activists forcing voters to vote for their candidates, besides complications with electronic voting machines.

The hartal was observed in a lacklustre manner in absence of pickets on city streets though pro-hartal activists brought out processions at places, including Baridhara, Banglamotor and Gulshan areas and a few senior leaders demonstrating in front of the party’s central office at Naya Paltan, cordoned off by police.

Towards the end of hartal hours, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir claimed that people observed the hartal spontaneously and movement of motorised vehicles remained negligible on Dhaka streets, many educational institutions remained closed while some financial institutions worked behind closed doors.

However, most of the senior leaders who live in Dhaka were neither seen on the streets nor in front of the BNP office, party leaders said.

Mid and grassroots level leaders said that the senior leaders did not take the political programme seriously while there were also difference of opinions among them.

They said that the mid- and top-level leaders of BNP failed to do their job to encourage the party leaders and activists to take to the streets for the sake of democracy and in establishing people’s rights.

They also alleged that the leaders generally do not stand by them if they were hospitalised or arrested during political programmes.

They said that most of the party leaders and activists were harassed by the police as well as ruling party leaders and activists and are now facing numerous fictitious cases for political reasons and they did not get adequate support from their senior leaders.

They also pointed out that the party leaders and activists were not ready for Sunday’s hartal as it was announced Saturday evening, only a few hours before beginning of the hartal hours.

‘Sunday’s hartal was not like what it was in the nineties,’ BNP’s special secretary Asaduzzaman Ripon said, while BNP executive committee members Abu Naser Mohammad Rahmatullah said, ‘We have failed to bring our activists out on the streets. Our senior leaders failed us in a big way.’

‘We have to earn faith of our grassroots leaders and activists by standing by them during their needs,’ Abu Naser added.

BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, who is vocal on the streets and led a demonstration in front of the party central office for hours on Sunday’s hartal, however, said that the pickets could not take to the streets due to fear of police actions and the presence of ruling party men.

In Saturday’s Dhaka city elections, the official vote count ended late while voter turnout was 25.3 per cent in the Dhaka North City Corporation, while 29.2 per cent in the Dhaka South City Corporation during the polls.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net