Dhaka, May 9 (Dhaka Tribune) -Former Islamic Chattra Shibir leaders who participated in the July uprising, splitting from the newly formed National Citizen Party (NCP) are going to form a new platform named United People’s Bangladesh or UP Bangladesh on Friday.
Initially, this platform will work as a political pressure group, but there is a chance of converting it into a political party in future.
This new platform comprising a majority of former National Citizen Committee (NCC) members, and some former National Citizen Party (NCP) members, are led by former NCC Joint Convenor and former DU Shibir President Ali Ahsan Zonaed and former NCC Joint Member Secretary and former DU Shibir President Rafe Salman Rifat.
What is their motive?
UP Bangladesh as a pressure group does not intend to influence government policies this soon, initially will work toward uplifting the July uprising’s spirit and will pressurize the interim government along with political parties to embody July uprising’s spirit.
UP Bangladesh plans to pressurize the government for the prosecution of mass-killings in July in a fact-checking based way, and the recognition, acknowledgement, and rehabilitation of injured and martyr families in July.
Rafe Salman Rifat told Dhaka Tribune that they believe implementation of these demands will uplift July’s spirit.
After a certain period of time UP Bangladesh plans to turn into a mainstream political party after they have organized it’s dstricts and upzilla committees.
According to top leaders, UP Bangladesh will practice centrist-rightist activism, however, some leaders state that it’ll be a democratic liberal organization.
However this present pressure group and future political party will not be engaging in the upcoming national election, as they claim to prioritize July’s spirit.
Abdullah Al Minhaz, one of the key organizers of the platform, told Dhaka Tribune that they aspire to end the conventional politics of Bangladesh citing references to extortion or partisan politics.
He also indicated four of the major problems they plan to eradicate such as fascism, imperialism, religious hatred, and corruption.
Why didn’t they join NCP?
Most UP Bangladesh leaders and activists claim that NCP’s questionable or controversial matters have made them hesitate, and insisted to form a new platform later.
UP Bangladesh top leaders also alleged NCP of returning to the old political settlement, as they had noticed a lack of fairness in the NCP’s formation process.
They also alleged a lack of accountability and transparency in NCP’s financial transactions.
Rafe Salman Rifat told Dhaka Tribune, “This whole thing (July uprising) loses meaning if we were to empower another fascist party after removing one.”
Abdullah Al Minhaz told Dhaka Tribune, “The vision we saw has failed as NCP is returning to the old form of politics despite having announced a new political settlement.”
UP Bangladesh’s emergence day events
UP Bangladesh plans to launch a website on their emergence day, which will be used for virtual crowdfunding.
This website will also allow people to observe the platform’s income sources and expenditures, and fill up their membership form from any part of the country.
UP Bangladesh plans to put this as a challenge to other parties, which they believe will encourage the parties to follow Bangladesh based politics and maintain transparency and accountability, as financial accountability and transparency will be one of the key ideals of the platform
The platform’s debut day programs include, convener committee, which will consist of 80-90 members, a declaration, clarifying their ideological ground will be read, along with unveiling the parts of Bangladesh’s history that has influenced their ideological ground, and martyr and injured families view on the contemporary issues.
The emergence program will also include a mass-signing program to ban the Awami League as a party.
Will the platform be Shibir affiliated?
As eight of the ex shibir top leaders in the NCC, who didn’t join NCP, are in this upcoming platform as key leaders, questions arise if they will have any affiliation with Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir.
Top leaders confirm that they will have no organizational affiliation with Shibir, but along with Shibir, they will be on good terms with all other parties and organizations.
UP Bangladesh also assured that the majority of their members are not Shibir affiliated, and their committees include people from diverse communities.
