HASINA-KHALEDA TALKS
Courtesy New Age 25/9/08
While Awami League is divided over the idea of two top leaders, Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, sitting across the table to discuss crucial problems the country is facing, the BNP leadership is sceptical about the outcome of such talks.
Rafique-ul Huq, counsel for both Hasina and Khaleda, initiated the move to organise a meeting between the two leaders at a neutral venue. Later the interim administration requested him to persuade them to sit across the table with the government.
BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia is reportedly willing to join the talks unconditionally with her archrival, Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, and the latter also initially welcomed the move but said she would make a decision after she returns home and consults her party leaders.
‘They should sit together in the interest of the country and democracy’, Barrister Rafique said at the Supreme Court Bar Association on September 9.
He said on September 21, ‘I have talked with both Hasina and Khaleda over telephone and they have welcomed the move. Khaleda Zia has told me that she is ready to join the dialogue, without any condition, at a neutral place. Hasina has also welcomed the move and said that she would talk with me on the issue after consulting her party’s leaders on her return from the
When asked if there was any specific agenda for the proposed dialogue, Rafique, said, ‘There is no specific agenda. As a citizen, I think enough is enough. There has been enough squabbling. The Awami League and the BNP have to stop this and work together in the interest of the country.’
‘The two top leaders do not talk to one another. Such a political culture must be changed. They should work for the nation’, he added.
Rafique also mentioned that there might be some other move on behalf of the government to get Hasina and Khaleda to sit across the table.
The commerce and education adviser, Hossain Zillur Rahman, said on September 11, ‘We are trying to get the two leaders to sit across the table to create an atmosphere of trust, and introduce a new mode in politics.’
The Awami League leadership set a number of conditions for the holding of the proposed meeting between Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia.
The acting Awami League president Zillur Rahman on September 13 said Hasina would make a decision on whether to sit with Khaleda only after she [Hasina] obtains a regular bail. ‘Sheikh Hasina, when she will be as free as Khaleda, will take a decision on a meeting with the BNP chief. But Hasina will not talk with anyone until she is permanently released.’
On September 14, Awami League presidium member Suranjit Sengupta set two conditions for talks between Hasina and Khaleda, saying that the BNP chief would have to apologise for the ‘misrule’ of her regime, including the August 21 grenade attack, before the meeting.
Syed Ashraful Islam, the general secretary of the party, said the party forum would take a decision in this regard after Hasina’s return. ‘We have not received a formal invitation from the government… We will take a decision after the government approaches us’, he said on September 16.
On September 23, BNP standing committee member M Saifur Rahman said the proposed dialogue between Khaleda and Hasina might give the people a respite, but, he felt, it would not produce any tangible result, according to United News of Bangladesh.
Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, joint secretary general of the party, on Wednesday said, ‘It would be better for the people and the democracy if the two leaders could meet together upon their own initiatives as there are great differences between the political cultures of the two parties.’
‘However, the initiative by an individual for a meeting between them is a positive step’, he said. ‘But the meeting would not produce any tangible results for the nation if it is held under the auspices of the [incumbent] government as it has many agendas which it wants to be approved by the two leaders and the next parliament, including legitimacy to its actions.’
There has reportedly been a move to keep both Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina off politics after the military-controlled government assumed office in January 2007 on the heels of a political confrontation mainly between the then ruling BNP-led alliance and the Awami League-led opposition camp.
The army-led joint forces arrested scores of leaders, including Sheikh Hasina in May 2007, and Khaleda Zia in September 2007. Hasina was temporarily released on June 11, 2008 for treatment overseas and Khaleda was released on September 11on bail granted by the court.
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