Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but in Tarique Rahman’s case, it seems to have mended the broken hearts of Bangladeshi voters, many of whom are now cheering the news of his return. Rahman has been in self-imposed exile in London. And as the second most prominent figure in his party, after his mother, Khaleda Zia, voters have been waiting for his return.
In an interview with BBC Bangla earlier this month, the acting chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Rahman, said that his return has not happened yet due to personal reasons. “But I think the time has come. This is an election for which people had been waiting. I cannot keep myself away during this time,” he said.
The news of Rahman wanting to return to Bangladesh after 17 years in exile has not only enthused the BNP’s voters but is also good news for Bangladesh in general, which needs to return to electoral democracy. Pressure has been mounting on the unelected Muhammad Yunus-led interim government to hold free and fair elections. At such a time, the news of Rahman throwing his hat in the ring has overshadowed his record as the ‘dark prince’ of Bangladeshi politics.
Troubled inheritance
With the BNP’s main rival, the Sheikh Hasina-led Bangladesh Awami League, barred from holding political activities in Bangladesh, there is big speculation that the party will comfortably win the election, and Rahman (58) will become the next prime minister.
Rahman is the eldest son of Ziaur Rahman, former Bangladeshi president, and Khaleda Zia, the first female prime minister of Bangladesh. If elected, he will be the third head of state from the family.
In a viral Facebook post on 18 September, Rahman wrote that the BNP is rebuilding and reorganising from the grassroots up, “embedding transparency and accountability, to guarantee the trust of the voters across the entirety of the country”.
“Already, more than 7,000 members have faced disciplinary actions, ranging from demotions to expulsions, for corruption, extortion, and misconduct. This has not been an easy decision, but it is a necessary one,” Rahman wrote.
The Bangladeshi press has reported that the move comes at a time when the party is struggling to rein in its grassroots. Many leaders and activists have been accused of various crimes, including extortion.
But it is not the BNP alone that needs to rebuild its image. Tarique Rahman himself needs to distance himself from his past. In October 2018, the Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 sentenced Tarique Rahman and 18 others to life imprisonment in the 2004 grenade attack case.
On 21 August 2004, a deadly grenade attack targeted an Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka, killing 24 people and injuring more than 100 party leaders and activists. Sheikh Hasina herself had a narrow escape. Khaleda Zia, Rahman’s mother, was the prime minister of the country at the time.
As it sentenced Rahman, the special court for speedy trials called the attack a “well-orchestrated plan, executed through abuse of state power”.
After the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government, the Bangladesh Supreme Court’s Appellate Division upheld a High Court verdict acquitting Rahman and others in the case.
But being held guilty for the attempted murder of Sheikh Hasina and her party members was not the only charge against Rahman.
On 24 May 2023, the Dhaka Tribune ran a three-part series “on patronisation of bribery and financial irregularities during the 2001-06 period (BNP tenure) based on documentary evidence”, where it referred to Rahman as the “dark prince” and delved into allegations of corruption as well as media intimidation.
The series talked about how Rahman allegedly turned the Hawa Bhaban, the political office of the BNP chairperson, into an alternative power centre that “had an immense capacity to abuse power and enjoy impunity, as observed by BNP politicians, US government officials, international rights watchdogs, and the media at the time”.
Journalists who tried to cover Rahman’s “excesses” from the Hawa Bhaban were tormented, intimidated and assaulted by state agents and non-state actors, according to the report.
The report quoted US embassy cables to show that Rahman accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit wealth. Multiple extortion cases pending against him at that time were founded on the testimony of numerous prominent business owners whom he had exploited.
Rahman helped create and maintain bribery, embezzlement and a culture of corruption, while “his theft of millions of dollars in public money has undermined political stability in this moderate, Muslim-majority nation”, the US cable was quoted as saying.
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For democracy’s sake
When the Awami League, under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina, came to power in 2009, Rahman went into self-imposed exile in London, citing safety concerns and alleging persecution by authorities. Whatever the charges against him and however shady his political past has been, Rahman’s decision to return home to Bangladesh is welcome news.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Bangladesh Awami League are two of the biggest political parties in the country. Sheikh Hasina is in exile in India along with a big chunk of the political leadership of her party, and neither the Yunus administration nor the Bangladesh election commission has made it clear yet if the Awami League can participate in the February polls. At such a time, Rahman’s return to Bangladesh and interest in the polls will give some degree of credibility to the upcoming elections.
Since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government, Bangladesh has been in the news for a host of wrong reasons. “Be it the attacks on minorities, the attempt to wipe out the legacy of the father of the nation, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the rise in radicalism or the downward spiral of the country’s economy, Bangladeshis are done with the unelected government that is in power,” Bangladeshi journalist Sahidul Hasan Khokon told me. Khokon said that the country desperately needs a government legitimately elected by the people.
Whether BNP will win the next polls and Rahman becomes the next premier, remains to be seen, but there is no doubt his return will enthuse a big section of voters desperately waiting for elections.
Deep Halder is an author and journalist. He tweets @deepscribble. Views are personal.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)