The Daily Star reports today the program of street protests that BNP leader Khaleda Zia promised would oust the sitting Awami League government was just a bargaining chip to have cases pending against her and her two sons removed from the docket.
Against those pending cases, the BNP offered to pull the program of agitation if only the AL government would pull the cases, deemed by the BNP as false.
A high placed BNP leader who seems to have had a falling out with the more hardline clique of the party claimed that the qui pro quo exchange hinged on the BNP pulling away from Jamaat, whilst also refraining from appointing Begum Zia’s two sons into political offices.
After a few mutual hiccups from breaking the truce, the two parties have apparently given up on maintaining a cease-fire. In recent months, AL leaders have thought the NNP’s promises non-credible, as hardliners in the BNP seem to have consolidated power. They invited Tarique Rahman into BNP leadership, while the AL began moves to rename Zia International Airport, named so in memory of the the late President Ziaur Rahman, the assassinated husband of Begum Khaleda Zia. In tit for tat fashion, in response, so claimed the anonymous, plausibly moderate BNP member, the BNP leadership began to re-connect with the Jamaat, while reaching out to the diplomatic corp to fend for itself abroad.
At its current strategy of play, this game can only result in the two parties moving farther apart, dividing the electorate and the people of Bangladesh. This will surely be an unfortunate turn of events, especially at this time when the political and economic winds seem to favor Bangladesh. Perhaps, only a slice through the Gordian knot can relieve the tension that binds it. Who can wield that sword or how it will be cut remains a perplexing, though tantalizing mystery.
