The warm and cordial interaction between BNP and Hefazat-e-Islam’s leaders may well indicate a stronger political alignment that has probably been in the offing for a while. Although the BNP had sought Hefazat’s support before, especially leading up to the elections, it had not been as public as the recent exhortation. Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, also the BNP chief, sought the blessings of Hefazat chief Muhibbullah Babunagari during his visit to the latter’s seminary in Chattogram’s Fatikchhari. The BNP chief and the Hefazat chief arrived on stage hand in hand, with Tarique helping the elderly cleric to his seat before sitting down.
The prime minister and his two senior cabinet members affirmed their endorsement for Hefazat as a close ally. In an apparent move to consolidate BNP’s position among the conservative right, all three BNP leaders said although Hefazat was not part of the government, they were still very much partners of BNP.
A non-partisan platform of Qawmi madrasas, Hefazat’s relations with the country’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, have become increasingly strained since the national election with some of its leaders labelling Jamaat as “non-Islamic”. Tarique’s move to draw the clerics closer during this brewing rift is a notable development in Bangladesh’s political landscape.
Hefazat seized the opportunity with a set of demands for the prime minister. These included demands like blasphemy laws with death penalty and declaration of the Ahmadiyya community as non-Muslims. The platform also demanded withdrawal of all cases against its clerics and punishment to those responsible for alleged massacre at Shapla Chattar on May 5, 2013.
Perhaps, what followed will suffice as an indication of how centrist BNP will look to placate its new friends from the conservative right. The home minister told the clerics that many of their demands were also those of BNP’s and asked for a list of all the false cases against Hefazat’s clerics. He said the BNP government would recognise dawrah-e-hadith graduates and afford them opportunity in government jobs. As regards the Ahmadiyya, he stressed that the ruling party had to work with and get along with everyone to run the country and enacting laws at the drop of a hat is simply not possible.
The Hefazat chief, with immense influence over tens of thousands of madrasas across Bangladesh, has been a power centre and a means towards a strong base among the conservative Islamists. Babunagari, as well as his predecessor, has thus typically been considered forces to reckon with.
Notably, the Awami League regime appeared to accommodate, what it considered, inconsequential demands of Hefazat just to keep the clerics happy. It will be interesting to see if BNP draws lessons from that arrangement as it goes forward.
