 "A mourner holds Bangladesh's national flag during the funeral of student leader Sharif Osman Hadi in Dhaka on December 20, after two days of violent protests over his killing. Huge crowds accompanied the funeral procession of Hadi, a key figure in last year's pro-democracy uprising who died in a hospital in Singapore on December 18 after being shot by masked gunmen while leaving a Dhaka mosque. (AFP)")
Around 30 founding members of Bangladesh’s National Citizen Party (NCP) have threatened to resign if the party decides to ally with Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and the 8-party coalition. According to The Dhaka Tribune, the NCP leaders wrote a joint letter to express their discontent.
In the letter to the party convener, the members pointed to Jamaat-e-Islami’s political history, particularly its anti-independence role during the 1971 Liberation War and complicity in genocide. They emphasised that the party’s stance has fundamentally contradicted Bangladesh’s democratic spirit and the party’s values.
The founding members of NCP further condemned Jamaat and its student wing, Shibir, for engaging in “divisive politics since the July uprising, including espionage within other parties, character assassination of NCP’s women members, and the rising threat of religion-based social fascism," The Dhaka Tribune reported.
Founding members urge NCP to take a tolerant approach
The signatories emphasised that as a democratic political force emerging from a mass uprising, the NCP has a responsibility “to lead toward a path where human rights, religious tolerance, equal dignity, minority protection, and democratic values remain intact.”
They also called out the party’s leadership’s apparent U-turn after announcing 125 candidates for independent contests, warning that any alliance “for just a handful of seats amounts to betrayal of the nation.”
In the letter, the founding members pointed out how the news of the potential alliance has already caused supporters to withdraw their backing. “If moderate people and those expecting new politics withdraw their support, we will lose the party’s moderate base in the future. This will damage NCP’s own centrist political agency,” the letter said.
Finally, the members concluded that “strategy should be determined based on principled positions; principled positions should not be sacrificed for strategic reasons,” while maintaining respect for party discipline.