Can BNP’s internal purge stem the tide of political backlash?

The demolition of a health centre at Dhaka’s Mirpur came at a time when the country was, and still is, reeling from a measles and dengue outbreak. The health workers continued to provide treatment out in the open. The optics were very damaging for the ruling BNP, especially as it transpired later that local BNP leaders and activists were involved. The removal of a sitting MP was an obvious acknowledgement, if not admission, of guilt.

Then there was the attack at a building near ECB Chattar, which also housed the studio of a content creator. The studio was ransacked, as part of a land dispute. The miscreants at the scene, however, have been linked to the ruling BNP. This incident also went viral as did the home minister’s remarks, which were strongly criticised as irresponsible.

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Then there was the arrest of a former MP, who had quit BNP and joined Jamaat-e-Islami. Not to mention the detention of hundreds of teenagers in an ongoing drive against what has come to be known as ‘teen gangs’, and a seeming rise of random violence across the country.

The BNP’s internal drive to purge itself of criminals by instructing local leaders to inform on party members indicates that the party thought it was necessary. Whether it was made in earnest or merely to placate perceived public expectation can only be found out over time.

What is noticeable is that the opposition has visibly stepped up its criticism as these incidents unfolded sensing that the ruling BNP is on the backfoot, trying to recover.

The National Citizen Party leaders, have been openly critical. An MP and one of the frontline July leaders, Hasnat Abdullah, questioned the source of the home minister’s wealth and challenged government agencies to investigate him if they dared in a widely read Facebook post. The opposition chief whip and NCP convener, Nahid Islam, had taken his criticism further, calling for the dismissal of the home minister. And Jamaat chief, also leader of the opposition, Shafiqur Rahman indirectly called for the government to step down on October 4. He said it has no right to remain in office if the government “fails to ensure people’s safety”.

The BNP, as predicted for long, is having to grapple with party discipline that is proving rather difficult to maintain. Besides removing its MP, BNP will also have to bring the other perpetrators to justice, which is obviously going to further erode the party’s already waning image. All the while, the government’s approach to dealing with any one of the prevailing crises -- inflation, fuel price, jobs, dengue, measles or crime -- are not working, which must have emboldened the opposition into thinking that now is the time to gain a little more public sympathy which Jamaat has leveraged to the hilt.

After all, Akhtaruzzaman’s arrest (he is a freedom fighter) provides Jamaat with just the right pivot to speak about Liberation War, so soon after the publication of its former leader Abdur Razzaq’s rather embarrassing memoirs which laid bare how the Islamist party has been skirting around the question of earnestly apologising for its opposition to the War of Independence in 1971.

But there is little chance of the prevailing rhetoric gaining such tempo as to reach a crescendo so early in the government’s tenure. Besides, with rigorous investigations, arrests and a purge, or at least a show of it, the ruling party appears to be trying to make amends.