Theatrics of nomination

The seat had fallen vacant when the sitting MP belonging to the opposition, in his wisdom, thought it fit to be a political turncoat and join the ruling BNP. He was to be quickly rewarded for floor-crossing with a ruling party nomination for the very seat he had vacated. But it is the prospect of a rebellion at the grassroots level as well as the threat of the let-down BNP leader Abu Zafar that he would be leaving the ruling party which forced its high-ups to rescind their decision in favour of the original BNP hand.

We fail to understand why in the first place a person with an allegedly questionable background was given priority over someone who has had a longer association with the party, without considering the adverse impact and the negative fallout of the action?

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What one also fails to understand is why did the ruling party decide in favour of someone who is not only new in the party but whose motivation for crossing the floor was dubious to say the least. It is none of our concern as to who the parties wishes to admit into their fold, but if the motivation for joining a party is to escape the arm of law, and in turn being rewarded with a nomination for the parliament by-election, one can only lament at the sheer lack of principles and morality that drive politics and politicians today in Bangladesh.

The comical display, of one of the largest political parties and the major partner in the ruling alliance, has to be the worst kind of horse-trading and political expediency that one has had the misfortune of seeing in recent times. What lessons do we take from it? What examples are the political leaders setting for the future of a democratic party.

We would like to think that politics is still imbued with a modicum of principles. Otherwise democracy can only be a matter of form, not substance and, therefore, hollow.