Every nation faced with an insurmountable crisis tries to finds a salvager, whom the people trust will be able to salvage the country from the ditches of uncertainty and the reign of anarchy. Bangladesh now faces this situation situation. Every Bangladeshi now feels their future is gloomy. Their country is under that paw of an obstinate aggressive hawk. They feel that they badly need a salvager who can take the country back to its proper channel rescuing it from the brink of destruction.
Though there is no scale to measure the exact popularity and acceptability of any leader, it is calculable, in most cases, if anyone can accurately study the prevailing situation and the sentiment of the common people of any country.
When analysts opine that Tarique Rahman enjoys high levels of popularity, they of course, observe the sentiment of many people.
I personally contacted some Bangladeshis from Dinajpur, Barisal, Chittagong, Sylhet and Khulna of Bangladesh to get their personal opinions regarding Tarique Rahman. I came to learn Bangladeshis strongly believe that he developed his intellectuality and became a people’s leader over the years, because he frequently participates at Zoom meetings on different occasions and speaks on issues and explains them with accurate information. His solutions bring him close to the people, which convinces them that he may be only person who can lead the country.
Since Acting Chairman of the BNP Tarique Rahman started zoom meetings with the district level leaders the volume of the attendees has increased by leaps and bounds. The district level leaders spread these timely messages to the grassroots level common people, who listen to the speeches of Tarique Rahman through social media platforms. These meetings prove very effective for the party and for Tarique Rahman’s leadership, according to district leaders.
Tareq’s parents taught him how and why to lead a pious, greedless and an honest life. He earned all the good qualities of his parents and possesses honesty, courage, vision, integrity, strategic planning capacity, creative and innovative power and above all, a leader-like personality.
Tarique Rahman, during his grassroots level conferences all over the country years ago, forgot his status and security and went directly to the doorstep of the people, entered inside their cottages, sat on their mats and ate what they gave to him. He distributed clothes among the marginalized villagers, presented them with calves, goats, sheep and money to make them self-reliant. He provided stipends to the poor meritorious students that helped them to build their future. He accurately thought that if grassroots people are empowered and made self-reliant, Bangladesh will become a developed and prosperous country.
Like his father Shahid Ziaur Rahman, Tarique also excavated and re-excavated canals and rivers to preserve water during the rainy season and used it for irrigation during the dry season, because India blockades the waters in the upstream of the international rivers. He also travelled all over Bangladesh and exchanged views with fishermen, rickshaw pullers and day laborers, and listened to their untold stories of sorrows and sufferings, while trying later to mitigate their problems. This was even before he had any official position in the BNP.
Like his parents, Tarique is also honest, soft spoken, mild, gentle, and benevolent. He was never rude to anyone and remained loyal to his ideology. He is devoted to his religion and country and believes in the religious freedom and equal rights of those who belong to other faiths.
For all these reasons, despite his opponents’ hectic conspiracies against him, Tarique Rahman was repeatedly proved as honest.
The horrendous torture on Tarique Rahman based on falsified allegations orchestrated by the Moin-Fakhar axis drew the sympathies of the common people that ultimately played a great role to popularize him. The Sheikh Hasina-led government in 2009 also undertook a fallacious policy of lodging baseless lawsuits and launching round the clock media disinformation against his mother, Begum Khaleda Zia and thousands of BNP members, including himself.
A high-ranking attorney of the Bangladesh Supreme Court Bar Association stated that despite repeated inquiries, the government failed to produce substantial evidence before the Court. The allegations of money-laundering, misappropriation of public money, extortion, smuggling of arms to India, the grenade attack on Sheikh Hasina’s rally, and all other defamatory allegations were totally fake and false. But Sheikh Hasina used the Court to get a conviction to keep Tarique Rahman out of Bangladesh and its politics.
Some political observers in Dhaka say that Sheikh Hasina’s allegations against Tarique Rahman became a good certification of honesty for him. It had a boomerang effect for Hasina, as Tarique is now more popular and more acceptable to the people.
Analyzing Tarique’s inner qualities, Vice Chancellor of Dhaka University M. Manirruzzaman Miah said, “Tarique Rahman is living up to our expectation, and adeptly following the legacy of his father. We enjoy the reflection of Shaheed Zia in Tarique Rahman’s constructive actions of growth and development. That is why we have seen how he took numerous progressive initiatives during the last BNP period, which in turn, changed the visage of Bangladesh. No sphere of national life was unmarked in his policy programs, and this gives us full faith that Tarique Rahman is the most appropriate person to lead the BNP and the nation.”
I agree with Vice Chancellor Manirruzzaman Miah, who also stated, “I believe that Tarique Rahman will go forward firmly in the way towards truth, justice and welfare with the strength of patriotism, upholding his father’s ideology and programs of action.”
Tarique Rahman’s own qualities and capabilities, above all, his popularity and acceptability, made him an asset for Bangladesh. He seems to be the only leader who can take Bangladesh back to its desired track. Many Bangladeshis feel that his leadership will insure peace, progress and prosperity of Bangladesh.
There prevails a strong belief among the political analysts and the common people that Tarique Rahman, being the son of Shahid Zaiur Rahman and Begum Khaleda Zia, will be mindful of the basic and vital strategic interests and sovereignty of Banglades.
*The writer is a Bangladeshi-American journalist and researcher based in the US.
November 15, 2021
The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of Aequitas Review.
