Will Tarique Rahman's BNP govt face street protests over July Charter?

BNP chief Tarique Rahman's electoral victory might have settled a battle. But the implementation of the Muhammad Yunus-driven July Charter, which secured a clear "Yes" in the referendum, could emerge as a challenge for Rahman. Bangladesh could see a return of street protests and return of confrontational politics.

On Thursday night, at the end of election day, panelists on a Bangladeshi TV channel sat to analyse the verdict. They discussed the Rahmans — Tarique and Shafiqur, the main BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami face-offs, the "limited poll violence" and what the future holds for Bangladesh. Then, the July Charter referendum came up, and the anchor approached a panellist. "More than an hour had passed before the July Charter was even mentioned on this programme. It's a telling sign of its urgency," the panellist said.

He argued, had the Jamaat-e-Islami coalition won the polls, implementation of the July Charter would have been smooth. But it is the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) that has won a two-thirds majority. "Things might be different here," he said.

The July Charter, which was passed by voters on February 12, seeks reforms to the Constitution and the democratic processes and institutions in Bangladesh. It is a set of suggested reforms cobbled together after the fall of PM Sheikh Hasina's regime, to prevent "fascist" regimes.

Following the landslide victory, Tarique Rahman's BNP is set to form the next government in Dhaka. The BNP had backed the July Charter, for which votes were cast alongside the voting for the parliamentary election on Thursday, but its support came with reluctance, reservations and dissenting notes. Now, if the BNP does not treat it as a priority, would the Charter's champion, Muhammad Yunus and his alleged allies, the NCP and the Jamaat, sit down quietly?

On Friday, Jamaat Ameer, Shafiqur Rahman made his "uncompromising stance" clear, and warned the future government against "sidestepping from it and betraying the spirit of 2024 (the year of anti-Sheikh Hasina protests, which led to the collapse of the Awami League's regime.)

"For the BNP, once the party is in power, I think implementation of the July Charter will emerge as one of the key challenges that the party has to navigate," Asif Mohammad Shahan, professor of development studies at Dhaka University, tells India Today Digital.