Promotions and...
Shahjahan Ahmed, Dhanmandi RA
The news regarding the promotion of officers to the posts of Joint and Additional Secretaries shows that we are far from implementing a sense of justice in handling the bureaucracy that has been politicised from the day one of our independence. What struck me as disgusting is the news that two officers of the 1981 batch were omitted from the list as they had served as Private Secretaries to two former AL ministers. I am, however, not so sure if it is correct that these two officers named in your report as having stood first and second in the 1981 BCS Exam exactly did achieve those positions.The BNP here is being seen as unfair and partial against the 1973 Batch. However, it need be said, tears in the eyes of the officers of the batch notwithstanding, that the 1973 batch was offered jobs on grossly unfair ground.First, their claim as freedom fighters was on the basis of certificates issued to them by an Awami League Government that ensured that not a single candidate who was not from their party or related to the top brass of the Awami League was recruited. There were many genuine freedom fighters, who were left leaning and were not given the chance to seek a job with the 1973 Batch. Second, the batch was recruited on the basis of just an oral examination that was conducted in as farcical a manner as one can imagine. Third, no educational qualification was set for the recruitment process and that explains why many of them also got left out from the promotion process under discussion, as they were, academically, under-qualified. Finally, throughout their careers, they have always been committed to the AL and when the AL came to power in 1996, they foolishly showed their hands not only in favour of the AL but overtly against the BNP. If one takes an objective view, the 1973 batch can then be described as a group recruited by the AL for political reasons, flouting all recruitment rules, and should have been removed with the departure of the first AL Government in 1975. Why do we forget that former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina herself called this batch as Tofael Bahini in 1996? The BNP's problem in handling the promotions has been its failure in dealing with the 1973 batch politically, for this batch is the only one in Bangladesh's history that was recruited under the US system of spoils to serve a political party for purposes that were strictly political. If anyone was left in doubt on the above, the batch removed that doubt by acting in 1996 as an extension of the AL in the bureaucracy and literally lifting the earth from under the feet of the BNB to bring it down. Why do we forget the so-called Janater Moncho of 1996 and the contributions of the 1973 batch to making the Moncho successful?
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