A new political platform ‘Network for Peoples’ Action’ was launched on Friday at Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka city, vowing for establishing a society free from discrimination and establishing people’s rights.
Organisers said that some young politicians played the main organising role behind the new platform and it would be turned to a political party in the coming days.
The platform has been launched weeks before the national polls slated for February 12.
One of the organisers Anik Roy, who recently resigned as a joint convener of the National Citizen Party, at his introductory speech of the launching event said that the platform would aim at building a discrimination-free society and establishing people’s rights.
At the programme, three organisers, Ferdaus Are Rumi, Tuhin Khan and Nazifa Jannat, read out the draft declaration of the platform that said its aim would be to establish democracy in all spheres of society, reform the constitution, ensure people’s rights, reform the economy and preserve the nature.
A 101-member central executive committee of the platform was also announced at the programme that started with the national anthem and ended with a patriotic song.
A good number of political leaders of different political parties, young activists, academics, cultural activists and professionals attended the programme.
Earlier, the organisers said that they wanted to run the political platform for six months to a year before evolving it into a full-fledged political party and during this period they would develop political and economic theses, manifesto, and an organisational framework.
Ahead of the coming national elections, the platform intended to remain active in policy dialogues, citizen mobilisation, social movements and grassroots organisation-building across the country, the organisers also said.
The platform would be turned to a party in the post-election period once its ideological and organisational groundwork was complete, they said.
Some top leaders of the July uprising who resigned from the National Citizen Party and people from across classes and professions would be with the platform, organisers also said.
Many of those joining the platform were from left-leaning and centrist background and actively participated in the July mass uprising.
Leaders who resigned from the NCP central committee in September—Anik Roy, Moinul Islam Tuhin (Tuhin Khan), and Alik Mree—are among the founding members.
Anik Roy, a former general secretary of the left student organisation Bangladesh Student Union, was joint convener of the NCP.
The platform also includes former Bangladesh Student Union president Baki Billah, its former leader and former coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement Nazifa Jannat and former Dhaka University unit president Meghmallar Bosu.
As its members the new platform has also writer and researcher Mir Huzaifa Al Mamduh, writer Ferdous Ara Rumi, writer and activist Tuhin Khan who served as a joint member-secretary of the NCP, and Bangladesh Adivasi Chhatra Sangram Parishad president Alik Mree who was the NCP’s joint chief organiser for the northern region.
On September 8, 2024, Jatiya Nagorik Committee (National Citizen Party) was formed led by student leaders of the July uprising with the stated goal of restructuring the state, abolishing fascist systems, and establishing the political framework of a ‘new Bangladesh’.
July uprising student leader Nahid Islam is currently the convener of the NCP.
A number of NCP leaders recently resigned opposing the party’s joining an alliance led by Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami ahead of the election scheduled for February 12.
