THE National Citizen Party, floated on February 28, 2025 in the aftermath of the July uprising that toppled the Awami League regime in August 2024, has every right to hold political programmes in any place. And, the attack on the party鈥檚 rally in the Gopalganj town on July 16 is, therefore, illegal. And, it makes a bad case when the Awami League and its affiliate organisations which have their activities suspended since May 12 pending the completion of the trial of the July 2024 atrocities during the uprising, carry out the attacks. The interim government on October 23, 2024 also banned the Chhatra League, the student wing of the Awami League, for its role in the uprising. The Gopalganj attacks, briefly before the rally and for a longer duration after the rally, leading to clashes with the law enforcers have left four dead and scores wounded. All this altogether constitutes an offence on part of the Awami League. It was the legacy of the Awami League to have attacked programmes of its political opponents. But the attacks at hand show that it has not changed at all, either in its frame of mind or in its behaviour.
The July uprising portended no recurrence of such a happening, yet the attacks happened, bringing to the fore the same warring frame of mind of the Awami League and its affiliate organisations. There also appear to be intelligence and, initially, law enforcement failures in the whole episode. The intelligence should have information beforehand on the situation that happened centring on the National Citizen Party rally in Gopalganj. And, the government should, therefore, carry out a fully-fledged investigation both of the likely failures, if any, and the death of four people in the clash. It should also see if there had been high-handedness on part of the law enforcers and hold anyone found in breach of the law to account. Besides, there appears to be some provocation by a YouTube influencer who lives abroad in what happened, especially concerning the tomb of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Some National Citizen Party leaders and activists, provoked by the YouTube influencer, have also made some provocative statements, which were not the right thing to do for the National Citizen Party. But what the event once again suggests that a political party as a political idea needs to be handled politically as it should be the norm in a sound political culture. A ban or suspension of activities would hardly work.
Whilst the government should, therefore, set up the investigation, contain such violence and step up enforcement, it should also realise that political ideology should be handled politically, not with a ban.
