Politics

Despite the miseries of millions along the far-flung stretches of yours,

Ye Ganges! You deaf Ganges! Why you keep going?

-Bhupen Hajarika

Click here for great Bangalee politicians

The Politicians: a satire written by late Prof Humayun Azad

Political Parties

Greater India (Pre 1947)

Congress (Gandhi-Neheru)

Muslim League (Jinnah)

Communist Party of India (1920)

Pakistan (1948-1970)

Establishment	Opposition
Muslim League	Awami League (Bhasani-Haque-Mujib)
Jamat-e-Islam	NAP (Bhasani)
	NAP (Muzaffar)
	CPB (Moni Singh)

Liberation War (1971)

The Provisional (Mujibnagar) Government: 10 April, 1971

Pro Liberation Parties	Anti Liberation Parties
Awami League	Muslim League
NAP (Muzaffar)	Jamat-e-Islam
CPB (Moni Singh)	Nezam-e-Islam
Bangladesh Congress Party	Pro China leftist groups

Bangladesh

JSD	BNP
Jatyo Party	Gano Forum

Political Forces: Bangals & Mohajirs

Mohajirs (Ghotis)	Bangals
The settler Muslims from India around and after 1947	The Hindu settlers from East Pakistan and Bangladesh forced to leave their motherland due to the repressive policies by Military and conservative Muslim governments.
They call them Mohajirs because they vowed (1947) to conquer Delhi from the Hindus. As they had no guts to fight the Hindus, they ripped the local Bangals and made them incredibly rich. Although the Mohajirs ripped off the Muslim Bangals in Bangladesh, the Punjabis in Pakistan ruthlessly suppressed (the only exception is President Musharaf)	The Kolkasians call the Bangalees of East Bengal as Bangals. It is a derogatory term coined to indicate the cultural inferiority of the Bangalees of East Bangla.
The Mojahirs are popularly called Ghati as they flocked to Bangladesh from India carrying only a torn blanket and a Ghati (a small multi purpose aluminum pot used for absolution, in toilet and drinking water). It is also indicative of their financial status as 98% of them were destitute.	The 19th century Bangla literature abound in uncouth unenlightened Bangal babus. The Tash Firingis (the middle class Kolkasians who grotesquely mimicked the English gentlemen) of Kolkata used to laugh at Bangal babus totally oblivious to the fact that they were mere laughing stock for the Angrez sahibs.
Mohajirs were mainly of lower class origin: Islamic clerks ( mullahs, munshis), janitors, laborers, paupers, tramps and beggars	In the first Hindu exodus (1947), the wealthy and cultured ones left East Bangla. In subsequent exoduses (71, 75, 86) the more desperate and less fortunate Hindus left Bangladesh.
The literacy rate among the Mohajirs was horrible. In few cases it was only a rudimentary knowledge of Islamic scripture. Characters such as Ramjan in Shahidullah Kaiser's Sangsaptak or Peer Majid in Syed Waliullah's Lalsalu represent typical Mohajirs.	The Bangals were enlightened and well educated as the majority of internationally recognized Bangalees came from Bangal families (Ray, Jyoti Basu, Nirod Chaudhuri etc) Novelist Bibhutibhusan recounted in Diner Par Din that he once saw 28 graduates (all Hindu) discussing Shakespeare at the wharf in a small village of Barisal.
The Ghatis still come and settle in Dhaka but regularly visit Kolkata for free treatment, government allowances and pensions.	Emigration still goes on every time the military dictators or conservative / fundamentalist Islamic parties take over or win the election
The Ghatis used the military to capture and civil bureaucrats to maintain political power. They used Sk Mujib & Awami League to achieve independence from the Pakistanis. In 1975, soon after the independence their representatives (Col Faquq, Rashid, Zia and Ershad) killed Sk Mujib and captured the political power. After Sk Mujib's murder the Ghatis, directly or indirectly, wield political hegemony.	They won political power by means of Election defeating the right wing Congress. Only a small number of the Bangal settlers tried to capture the state power by means of armed revolution. They are known as Nakshals. But both the federal government and the dominant faction of the CPI (ML-Jyoti Basu) have ruthlessly repressed them.
The Ghatis are shrewd, sweet talkers but treacherous. Hypocrites and stingy.	The Bangals are less sophisticated than the urban Kolkasians. Their accent is crude but they are more generous than the Kolkata locals.
The key to Mohajir's financial success is their shrewd manipulation of Islam. They always preach Islam but never practice them. Well mannered, corrupt and immoral.	The Bangals used their brains, labor number and education to establish them in a hostile environment.
They are neither nationalist nor patriots. Since 1975 they have sold most of the heavy industries and contributed very little to the industrialization or economic growth of Bangladesh. They only enriched them, their families and their relatives at the expense of national economic growth. They keep their money in foreign banks, educate and naturalize their children in UK, USA and Europe and work as commission agents of foreign companies.	Unlike the Mohajirs, the Bangals are nationalists and patriots. Although they did not build industries like the Indians of other parts of India, they have developed a competent education system and state welfare facilities. Kolkata accommodated millions of settlers from Bangladesh with its own resources and without the help of the central government.
Except for developing a class of domineering military officers, a bunch of corrupt bureaucrats and an army of Islamic fundamentalists bred in thousands of state supported Madrasas (Islamic schools), the Mohajirs damaged all other institutions in Bangladesh	The political leadership of the Bangals considerably succeeded in assuring the basic needs of millions of poor populace of Kolkata.

NAP (Founder: Bhasani, 22 July,1957)

NAP (Mojaffar), 11 Feb, 1978	NAP (Sudharam) later UPP (1974)
NAP (Mashiur) merged with BNP	NAP (Gazi), 1979
NAP (Nasser), 1979, merged into Janadal	NAP (Anwar Zahid), 1977
NAP (Halim), merged into BNP	NAP (Altaf), 1977
NAP (Haroon), 1977	Ekata Party
UPP (Qazi Zafar)	UPP (Rano-Mennon)

East Pakistan Communist Party (1948)

CPB (Pro USSR), 1966 (Moni Singh & Farhad)

CPB (ML) Pro China

CPB (ML) Pro China

Communist Party of East Pakistan (ML) Toyaha	Communist Party of East Pakistan (ML) Huq-Satyen-Bimal-Zeeban), 1971
Communist Party of East Pakistan (ML) Nazrul-Amal,1971

Siraj Shikder Stream

Labor Movement of East Bangla

The party of the Have- Not's of East Bangla

Mennon-Rono Stream

Comittee for Communist Revolutioneries (Zafar-Mennon-Rano)	United Peoples' Party (1973)
UPP (Zafar) Joined Gen Zia and Gen Ershad	UPP (Mennon)
Worker's Party

**Matin-Alauddin group**
East Bangla Communist Party (Matin -Alauddin), 1968	Revolutionary Communist Movement of East Bangla (later merged into Matin-Alauddin group)

Other factions of Pro Chinese communists in Bangladesh

Communist Party (Nagen Biswas)	Center for Communist Consolidation (Amal-Sen- Nazrul)
Communist Party of East Bengal (Deben-Bashar-Aftab)	Organization for Communist Activists (Saifur-Maruf-Dawood)
Communist Party of Bangladesh (Nasim Ali of Hatia)

Election of 1970

Party	Seats	Hill tracts	Female members	Total
Awami League (Mujib)	160	-	07	167
PPP (Bhutto)	83	-	05	88
Muslim League (Qayuum)	09	-	-	09
Muslim League (Council)	07	-	-	07
M League (Convention)	02	-	-	02
NAP (Wali)	06	-	01	07
Jamat-e-Islam	04	-	-	04
Jamiat-e- Olema	07	-	-	07
Jamiat-e- Olema	07	-	-	07
PDP	01	-	-	01
Individual (s)	07	07	-	07
TOTAL				313

Historic Six Points of Sheikh Mujib

1. The establishment of a federal form of government with parliament to be the supreme form power directly elected by universal adult suffrage

2. The federal government would control only defense and foreign policy, leaving all the other subjects to the federating states of East and West Pakistan

3. The two wings would have separate (but freely convertible) currencies or if one currency, separate fiscal policies to prevent the flight of capital from East to West Pakistan

4. The federal government would have no power of taxation, it would share state-taxes for the need of foreign and defense affairs

5. Each of the federating state would have the power to enter into trade agreement with foreign countries. They will also have full control over their earned foreign exchange.

6. Each state have their own militia or para-militia forces

Profile: political parties

Pre Liberation

Awami League

National Awami Party (NAP): Bhasani

National Awami Party (NAP): Mozaffar

Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB)

Anti Liberation parties

Pro Chinese Communist Parties

Muslim League

Jamat-e-Islam

Other Islamic Parties

Bangladesh

Jatiotabadi Samajtantrik Dal (JSD)

BNP

Jatyo Party

Gano Forum

Bikalpa Dhara

Jatyotabadi Samajtantrik Dal (JSD)

Foundation

Meteoric rise after the independence of Bangladesh with a gimmick as political slogan, scientific socialism, despite the fact that none of the party theoreticians were either scientist or any accomplished professionals. All the theoreticians of JSD were ex members of Awami League supported students' League. It is interesting that all the proponents of JSD are now renegades and none admits (unlike Toyaha) that they did a grave mistake as their idiocy drove the spirit of liberation war from the soil of war devastated Bangladesh within five years after the independence and strayed thousands of youth who would have otherwise been the forces of national reconstruction.

Impact

1. Establish the tradition of political hypocrisy

2. Create the cult of the renegade: starting as political extremist finishing as man power businessmen, contractors or taking foreign citizenship (in Germany, UK) as political asylum seekers.

3. Derailment of the post war generation

4. Helped Zia take over political power (Taher removed Khaled Musharrf and freed Zia, Zia in return hanged him for his political dissent and use of military personnel for political gains)

Mistake: The very foundation of the party.

Weakness: Philosophical poverty, rashness, showy radicalism, infantilism.

Strength: Ability bring under spell the rash youth and drive them to political cog mire. Rasputinism.

Islamic Extremist Groups

Harkat-ul Jihad: Leader Mufti Hannan

Islami Shasantantra Andolan

Islami Aikyo Jote: Amini

Jaish-e-Muhammad

Vigilante Muslim Force (Bangla force)

Committee for the Extermination of Atheists and Non-Conformists

Reference:

Reza Shah Ahmed: The Role of Jamat in Bangladesh Liberation War.

Kabir Shahriar: The Past and Present of the Killers of 71- Jamat-e-Islam