THE remark of an influential standing committee member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Salahuddin Ahmed, about the newly launched National Citizens鈥� Party鈥檚 pronounced objective of establishing a 鈥榮econd republic鈥� in Bangladesh was 鈥榗onspiratorial鈥� and was aimed at prolonging 鈥榰ndemocratic governance鈥� is misleading. Nahid Islam, the convener of the new party, the National Citizens鈥� Party, which was launched on February 28, asserted that the bloodied student-mass uprising that had toppled the autocratic regime of the Awami League did not aim at just a regime change, it, rather, aspired to democratise the state machine and for that to happen, the country needed to change the existing constitution of the state that legally sustains electoral autocracy. Theoretically, in order to change the existing constitution of the state, the politically correct path is have a constituent assembly elected to draft the constitution and finally get it approved by the people through a referendum. If a genuinely democratic constitution could be framed this way and the state is reformed on the basis of the newly adopted constitution, the state could be called a 鈥榮econd republic鈥�.
But the next day, on March 1, the BNP leader in question found Nahid鈥檚 statement to be 鈥榗onspiratorial鈥�, 鈥榓imed at prolonging undemocratic governance鈥�. The BNP remark appears hasty and intolerant to classical democratic ideas. We have earlier written in this column that we reserve our comments of the newly launched party, for it has not yet published its official manifesto and programmes. However, no democratically-oriented politician can disagree that the exiting constitutional dispensation allows electoral autocracy that serves the parties in power, ignoring the rights, dignity and sovereign interests of the people at large. Therefore, the aspiration for dismantling the constitutional autocracy and establishing a robust democratic framework cannot be called 鈥榗onspiratorial鈥�. The BNP leader not only termed the vision of a 鈥榮econd republic鈥� as conspiratorial, but he also claimed that the 鈥榗urrent republic is not sick鈥�. The observation not only suggests the BNP politician鈥檚 inadequate political understanding of the state, but is also a shocking refusal to acknowledge the damage done to the system by the deposed Awami League regime.
Under the circumstance, the BNP leadership would do better in engaging with the youth politicians of the newly launched political party, and even beyond, to grasp the newly emerged aspirations out of the historic July mass uprising and hold constructive debates, if necessary. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which has been the largest victim of the Awami League鈥檚 constitutional autocracy for more than 15 years, must find constructive ways to disagree on political strategies and goals of other political parties aspiring to democratise the state and the polity.