Jamaat's incredible jump. What does it mean for India, Bangladesh Hindus?
India Today
From the shadows of ban, the Shafiqur Rahman-led Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami has emerged at the centrestage. As Bangladesh votes today, it's giving the Tarique Rahman-led BNP a tough fight. With the Jamaat promising "change" in post-Sheikh Hasina Bangladesh, what would its reassurance to Hindu minorities and New Delhi, really mean?
"You guys in India haven't understood Jamaat," is what I have been told by members of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and some political experts in the last many years that I have been writing on Bangladeshi politics and society. I will be honest here. I never anticipated the Jamaat jump that we are all witnessing as Bangladesh votes in its first national election after the fall of PM Sheikh Hasina's regime.
As a journalist, I cultivated sources across diverse political parties in Bangladesh, including the Jamaat, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the now-barred Awami League. India Today Digital had its ear to the ground and was the first to tell you that the Awami League regime was as good as gone on August 4, 2024, a day ahead of Hasina leaving for India. No one else had a whiff. That, amid an internet blackout.
The voting for the 350-seat Jatiyo Sangsad or Bangladesh Parliament will take place on Thursday, and the results will be clear in the wee hours of February 13.
Let's return to our story on the Jamaat-e-Islami, which is a cadre-based party and its organisational depth rivals that of the Awami League's. Despite a ban, which was later lifted by the Muhammad Yunus-led interim set-up, members of the Jamaat and its students' wing Islami Chhatra Shibir played a key role in the July-August movement that forced Hasina out.
Its leaders, including Ameer Shafiqur Rahman, have been in jail. Several of its leaders, including former ministers, have been hanged for crimes during the 1971 Liberation War.
However, it seems that the Jamaat has emerged from the shadows of the past. "Aamra bhala hoi gisi (we have mended ways). Please give us a chance," Shafiqur Rahman said at an election rally. Surveys suggest people are willing to give the Jamaat-led 11-party alliance a chance as Bangladesh votes to elect its Jatiyo Sangsad.
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