Editorial
AL scraps deal with BKM
It should not have been there at all
The decision by the Awami League to come out of its pre-electoral deal with the Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish will have surely come as a relief to its members and followers alike. The move is surely an attempt at damage limitation by the party over an arrangement that had left many in the country questioning the secular ethos of Awami League politics. No matter how the Awami League leadership chooses to explain its understanding with the BKM on such crucial issues as the fatwa and no matter how at this point it defends its decision to back out of the deal, the fact remains that a good number of questions have lingered over the issue. When the AL reached the deal with the BKM, the big worry was that principles were being sacrificed in favour of expediency. The worry turned to shock when it was realized that the deal clearly aimed at an appeasement of bigotry, especially in conditions where such communities as the Ahmadiyyas already found themselves in a beleaguered state owing to the obscurantist activities of certain organizations.The new move by the Awami League is surely welcome, for the very particular reason that, warts and all, the party has generally been symbolic of secular politics in Bangladesh. The furore the deal with the BKM gave rise to was all the more serious considering that not many in the party leadership appear to have been consulted before such a major decision was taken. Perhaps those who took that step were not quite prepared for the resultant outcry which arose throughout the country. Overall, it was a small group in the AL that reached out to the Khelafat Majlish. The price the party paid for it, it is now clear, was rather high. That was because all of a sudden the impression was being created that a historically secular party could soon be turning its back on those whose cause it had defended since its founding in the late 1940s. The argument now being made that it was all part of a pre-election deal does not hold water. Assuming that the political situation had remained unchanged, would the party have upheld the memorandum of understanding with the BKM? The Awami League has been the guiding spirit behind the Bengali movement for autonomy in the 1960s and the war of liberation in 1971. It has been in power twice in free Bangladesh and in opposition has played a major role in articulating popular aspirations. It is natural, therefore, for the nation to expect that it will uphold its traditional image. With the scrapping of the deal with the BKM, the party will hopefully reassert its old, time-tested ideals.
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