At present, there is no active participation program of political parties in the country in that sense. However, there is no lack of interest in politics among the common people in the country. Evidence of this can be found in rural areas at neighborhood-mahalla junctions or market tea shops. I have gone to a market in the village before the Eid of last month and saw a crowded chat at tea shops. As there were no empty seats, standing behind for a while, it was understood that the people working in the fields all day long do not keep the news of the country less than the urban people!
What did the leader of any party say when, which heroine's family broke up, which country lost whom in the cricket game, etc. What did Putin-Biden say, the whole world situation including the Ukraine-Russia, Israel-Palestine war should be memorized by them! These tea stalls also have a party identity. Separate stalls for Awami League and BNP supporters. And the supporters of other parties live together in all of them. I have never seen such political awareness of the people of the village in the memory of leaving the village two and a half decades ago. Talking to the villagers, it was learned that this awareness has come among the people mainly due to the spread of electronic media. These tea-stall chats often lead to violence.
This shows that even though there is no active program of political parties in the country, the political mentality has not disappeared among the common people. Instead, they keep all the news happening in the country and abroad for the kindness of the media and also raise their own thoughts in their tea chat. Although there are supporters of the party, many times they do not stop criticizing even the intemperate speech of a central leaders of their party. The commonly used term 'Public Parliament' is probably a reflection of these tea stalls in the village.
Amid apathy in political parties, an election opportunity has come again. Upazila Parishad election. Although the local government cannot be an active organization at the moment, there is no lack of enthusiasm among the local leaders and activists of the parties around the upazila elections. Elected office confers certain privileges, as well as nurtures a cadre of followers—which paves the way for establishment in politics. Many leaders of upazila and district level have participated in the upazila elections due to such reality. Many of those who were defeated in the race to become MPs are also participating in the upazila elections, breaking their shame and lowering their aspirations.
Some speeches and statements of the 'high command' of Awami League and BNP, the two main parties in and out of power, have made this election more important. The ruling party Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader has recently called several press conferences and issued 'strict' instructions to follow some of the party's precepts in the upazila elections. This strong message is that relatives of MP-ministers should not be candidates in the upcoming upazila election.
For the past few weeks, there has been a lot of commotion within the ruling party and in the entire political sphere. The high command's informal and personal dealings with important leaders and MPs at various levels of the party are going on extensively. Awami League general secretary had a heated exchange with some senior leader due to the fear of conflicting with the party's 'hard position' and the interests of relatives!
According to political sources, a member of the party's presidium also said that if his son is not the chairman, the development of the area will not happen!
According to the news published in the media, in most of the districts of the country, relatives of MPs and ministers have become candidates in defiance of the central instructions of Awami League and their candidatures have also been declared valid. We have seen many leaders announcing decisions like notice-expulsion, permanent expulsion due to disobedience of the party's decisions in the past national elections and even earlier local government level elections and even by-elections. Later, I saw that the party reconsidered the decision and returned the expelled leaders to the party. Even the general secretary of Gazipur Metropolitan Awami League, Jahangir Alam, who was expelled for insulting Bangabandhu, was surprised by the decision to return to the party. In such a reality, it is probably necessary to consider whether the 'strict instructions' from the party high command not to run for the relatives of MP-ministers in the upazila parishad elections are being considered 'ridiculous' by the common people and even the field workers-supporters.
On the other hand, BNP has expelled 73 members of the party for taking part in the first phase upazila parishad elections in violation of the party decision of the BNP, which was limited to some press conferences and meetings with foreign diplomats without a political program. Among them there are 28 upazila chairman candidates, 24 vice chairman candidates and 21 female vice chairman candidates. It has also become clear that BNP leaders and workers who have been paying costs for a long time due to the short-sighted and stubborn decisions of the party high command are impatiently taking care of the party's decisions. If you don't get a chance to contest in the elections, you can feel the lack of politics among the leaders or workers if you talk to the grassroots workers of the party.
The leaders of HM Ershad's Jatiya Party, which has ruled the country for a long time under the shelter of dictatorship, have become stunts and sidekicks of other parties and have come to such an unimportant condition that it is impossible to say how much importance people give to the leaders of this party. Besides, the infighting in the party has reached such a state that the current party chief himself is disappointed. Then the workers and supporters of that party understand how directionless it is.
In this situation, the 'ridiculous' expression of the public about the 'judgment' of the high command of the political parties in the country does not bode well at all. The self-realization of those who are involved in the decision-making process of the parties is very important that the common people of the country have now learned to understand many things. In those 'public parliaments' of the village, post-mortems of all the leaders of every party, big and small, take place. They do not hesitate to lash out at those concerned for controversial and anti-public activities while praising good and honest work. History has repeatedly proved that the future of those 'politicians’, who are eager to expand the self-thinking of those who consider these perceptions and opinions of the common people to be unimportant, is not good at all. Therefore, it is very important to practice far-sighted and steady decision-making in politics rather than being a laughing stock to the public.