'Incompatible, role in 1971 genocide': Revolt rocks Bangladesh student party over alliance with Jamaat

An internal rift has erupted inside Bangladesh's student-led National Citizen Party (NCP) ahead of the February parliamentary elections, exposing divisions over a proposed electoral alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami. The split surfaced overnight after 30 NCP leaders issued a joint memorandum opposing any seat-sharing arrangement with Jamaat, while two senior figures announced their resignation.

The NCP is a political offshoot of Students Against Discrimination (SAD), the student group that led last year's violent movement - dubbed the July Uprising. The protest toppled former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League government. The party emerged formally in February with the backing of interim government chief Muhammad Yunus.

The first signatory to the memorandum and NCP's joint member-secretary, Mushfiq Us Saleheen, confirmed that the document had been submitted to party convenor Nahid Islam.

Titled "Principled objections to a potential alliance in light of the accountability of the July Uprising and party values", the memo lays out why an alliance with Jamaat is unacceptable to a section of the leadership. "There is disagreement within our party regarding an electoral alliance with Jamaat. This has been communicated to our top leaders, and discussions are ongoing," Mushfiq Us Salehin told The Daily Star.

The memorandum states that an alliance with Jamaat conflicts with the NCP's declared ideology, its position on the July Uprising, and democratic ethics. It flags Jamaat's controversial political history, particularly its role against Bangladesh's independence and alleged collaboration in genocide and crimes during the 1971 Liberation War, describing these as fundamentally incompatible with Bangladesh's democratic spirit and the NCP's core values.

The document also alleges that Jamaat's student wing, Chhatra Shibir, has in the recent past infiltrated and sabotaged other political parties in an attempt to blame the NCP for various incidents and spread misinformation and propaganda. It warns that a formal alliance would undermine the NCP's political credibility and public trust, and create confusion and disappointment among "many of our activists and supporters, especially among the younger generation and ordinary citizens who support new politics".

The internal dissent became public after NCP's senior joint member-secretary Tasnim Jara resigned on Saturday evening. Jara later announced that she would contest the upcoming parliamentary election as an independent candidate from a constituency in Dhaka.

In a Facebook post, Jara, a doctor, said, "Due to the current political realities, I have decided not to contest the election as a candidate of any specific party or alliance." She did not clarify whether her resignation was linked to the proposed Jamaat alliance. Her husband and the party's joint convenor Khaled Saifullah has reportedly also quit the organisation.

Bangladesh's mass-circulation Ittefaq newspaper reported earlier that most female NCP leaders, including senior joint convenor Samata Sharmin, senior member-secretary Nahid Sarwar Niva, joint convenor Taznuva Jabin, and joint member-secretary Nusrat Tabassum, oppose any alliance with Jamaat or other religion-based parties and have conveyed their reservations to the leadership.

Most of the signatories to the memorandum, however, are male members of the party.

The Daily Star reported that the NCP is likely to finalise a seat-sharing deal with Jamaat within the next one or two days. Jamaat's secretary general Mia Golam Parwar told the newspaper that discussions with the NCP are ongoing on a one-on-one basis and "there is a possibility of sharing seats, and the issue will become clear very soon".

Earlier, Prothom Alo reported that a possible seat-sharing arrangement between the NCP and former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) was discussed, "but no understanding was reached". The report added: "Since then, NCP talks with Jamaat have progressed positively."

(With inputs from PTI)