Badruddoza Chowdhury haunted by his own creation!

 

By Shabbir Ahmed

 

Bangladesh without any question is passing through a series of political turmoil at the present time.  The political turmoil is apparently gaining momentum due to the increasing criticism of the government by the eminent personalities such as Dr. Kamal Hossain and Dr. Badrudduza Chowdhury in the country.  The coalition government of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-i-Islami isn’t criticized now by their archrival Awami League only.  There are growing dissenting voices raised by the moderates of the coalition government.  The resignation of two parliamentarians is the example of the fragile condition of the government.  Most importantly, the tough criticism of the founder secretary general of BNP against the present government is noteworthy.  It is Dr. Badruddoza Chowdhury who tried hard to bring the present coalition government into power.  Unfortunately, the party he formed and the government he wanted to govern Bangladesh didn’t show any sympathy toward him when they forced him to resign from the post of the President.  After leaving the office in disgrace resigning from the office, Dr. Badruddoza went into his medical practice because he earned a good reputation of being an outstanding physician.  But, after a silence of about one and half years, he started expressing his disgust over various activities of the coalition government he worked so hard to bring into power.  Those who observed and knew about the rise and political culture of BNP were concerned about the fate of Dr. Chowdhury.  I must admit that the dissenting voices in the major political parties aren’t generally tolerated in Bangladesh.  But, in the case of BNP, the political dissent can be really deadly. 

 

The founder of BNP, the military dictator Gen. Ziaur Rahman used to deal any dissenting voice mercilessly.  There’re well-established documents and reports published about the collaboration of Col. Taher and Gen Ziaur Rahman in capturing power through a counter coup against Gen Khaled Musharraf in the month of November 1975.  After the capture of power, Gen. Ziaur Rahman might have disagreement on the political views with Col. Taher.  For this, Gen. Ziaur Rahman put him on trial in a martial law court.  Col. Taher was given death penalty despite he was crippled and maimed during the liberation war against Pakistan (he lost one of his legs).  It wasn’t allowed to give death penalty to a crippled person.  But, under martial law, this was done by violating civil laws and/or constitution.  Col. Taher had to pay dearly for helping to bring the military dictator Gen. Ziaur Rahman into power.  Now, much water has flown through Padma and Meghna since 1975-1976.  However, the brutality of BNP had remained the same!  I’m sure that Dr. Badrudduza Chowdhury won’t have to pay like Col. Taher in the hands of Mrs. Khaleda Zia, the widow of Gen. Ziaur Rahman.  But certainly, he is under direct/indirect threats from the government and the cadres, he helped to form and organize.

 

He was cordoned by the police and forced to enter into his car while he left Bangabhaban after his resignation as the President of Bangladesh.  Recently, he was seen running to save his life from the cadres of his own party.  It’s reported that most of these cadres were recruited and motivated by him not too long ago to do the politics he learnt so well from his Guru, martial dictator Gen. Ziaur Rahman.  As I notice, he still wants to follow the politics of the military dictator Gen. Ziaur Rahman, who made politics difficult for the good politicians of Bangladesh.  Gen Zia used to boast that he would make politics difficult in Bangladesh.  Unfortunately, he was successful even though it cost him his life.  The politics has really become very difficult for anyone who wants to keep a minimum level of dignity and decency while living in Bangladesh.  Of course, for Dr. Chowdhury, the politics has now become very difficult.  Anyone who will join him will face the utmost difficulty.  Under BNP’s rule, the politics have become difficult for a real dignified politician.  As the President, Dr. Chowdhury wanted to maintain his dignity.  That became the reason for his subsequent difficulties.  After all, BNP maintains and carries on the principles of their founder, the military dictator Gen Ziaur Rahman, who was an expert in suppressing the dissenting voices around him. 

 

It’s relevant to mention that politics wasn’t that difficult for Dr. Chowdhury while Awami League was in power during 1996-2001.  Dr. Chowdhury could able to agitate people for any reason or for no good reason.  For example, his party BNP was against Chittagong Hill Tract Treaty, Ganges Water Sharing Treaty, import of power from India to make up power deficit, road transit to India, gas export, etc.  For all these, BNP and their allies tried to agitate the people of Bangladesh, which, in fact went in vain.  An innumerable number of strikes were called for no good reason on these issues.  I remember that Dr. Chowdhury was seen in the forefront in the pictures for agitating people against the former government under Awami League.  But, Dr. Chowdhury didn’t have to run to save his life from the joint attacks of the political goons and police at that time.  It’s not my intention to say that there were/are no political goons in Awami League or any other parties.  The political hooliganism wasn’t at such a level that an ex Professor of a medical college was attacked for agitating people for really no good reason.  I read in the newspapers that Dr. Chowdhury even conducted a propaganda campaign against the former government in a television program called “Shabash Bangladesh.”  Through this program he derided the then ruling party with his smart aleck comments.  In that TV program, he portrayed the Awami League government as the perpetrators of all the terror acts during 1996-2001.  In all possible ways, he covered up the terror acts of the fundamentalists and their sympathizers in Udichi cultural program in Jessore, Chayanot’s program in Ramna, Kotali Para bombing plot against Mrs. Sheikh Hasina, Narayanganj bombings in Awami League’s meeting, Church bombing in Gopalganj, etc.  He even went too far in his program by portraying Awami League as an anti-Islamic party.  He appealed to the voters in his program that Awami League would destroy Islam if they were voted again to power.  This was against election code of conduct and against any political norm.  Nevertheless, he did it successfully to bring his party BNP to power.  I didn’t watch the program but I read all about it in newspapers. 

 

It’s a fact that Dr. Chowdhury didn’t have to run for saving his life while he was busy doing false propaganda against the Awami League government.  But, recently, he has saved his life critically from the attacks of the goons of his former party.  The goons were about to drive motorcycles upon him.  He could have been severely injured/killed.  A few years ago, a picture was published in which Dr. Chowdhury was seen with a bouquet of flowers to receive a BNP cadre, who was (is) infamous for his criminal record.  Just before he became the President of Bangladesh, he attended a reception program of some non-student cadres. It was really shocking to see someone like Dr. Chowdhury encouraging some notorious cadres, who are none but political goons.  Unfortunately, these cadres are now throwing bombs in his house/clinic and even they’re attempting to kill him.  The government cadres/police aren’t letting him even to express his voice in public.  It’s reported that the government under tremendous pressure from some of the influential donor countries allowed him to join Dr. Kamal Hossain’s meeting.  Their founders founded the cadre-politics of BNP.  Military dictator Gen Ziaur Rahman used to recruit criminals to create political cadres.  After capturing and consolidating his power, he even searched for convicted criminals in jail and let them loose to work either for him and/or against his political opponents.  As an example, the Dhaka University convicted killers of 1974 (imprisoned for life for seven murders) were released by Gen Ziaur Rahman.  The same scenario, we observed in 2001 also after BNP and the fundamentalist coalition came to power.  They released hundreds of thousands of criminals from jail to work for their party as cadres (as reported in many newspapers).  Many of them have become commissioners/leaders.

 

Dr. Chowdhury can’t be exempted from scrutiny.  He encouraged many of the cadres of the late military dictator Gen Ziaur Rahman to do harm against the political opponents.  It’s probable that after becoming President, he tried to maintain some degree of dignity, decency, and fairness outwardly.  His party BNP didn’t care at all about his status and dignity as the President.  But, it was Awami League’s leaders, who protested and didn’t support throwing him out of power despite the serious political differences with him.  Even though many of us don’t support his vicious politics that he was carrying on from the days of military dictator Gen Ziaur Rahman, but yet we shouldn’t feel good to see an ex-President under threat from some political goons.  It’s a disgraceful scene that one of our ex President was running on a street of Capital Dhaka to save his life in an open broad daylight.  I would like to think that he’s learned the lessons of patronizing political goons.  It’s never late to correct the mistakes.  Dr. Chowdhury should correct himself from the politics of a vicious military dictator Gen. Ziaur Rahman.

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 Dr. Shabbir Ahmed writes from Naples, Florida.  His e-mail address is – sahmed@...