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. 

It is obvious that the campaign of India-out or boycott India won’t be successful in Bangladesh. The reason for this is the high preference for Indian goods among the masses mainly due to the quality and affordable price of the Indian products. But the people who initiated this campaign through social media did not give a solution to the entire population of the country that how to cook without the Indian spices, onions from India, make finished cloths without Indian cotton, they only advised the people to avoid Indian branded products.

The social media influencers also advised the people not to visit India for medical tourism, as that is also a kind helping India economically. The whole thing started after the Awami League again came to power and the opposition kept on repeating their rhetoric that India has again helped Hasina Govt. to get into power and it is destroying democracy in Bangladesh. The most astonishing fact is the widespread support the campaign (at least through social media) by the masses, indicates something very serious. One may also say that a big section of the people always had anti-India feelings.

The support from the masses reached such a level that even the opposition parties like BNP were a kind of bound to join it officially and even one of their leaders publicly burnt his Kashmiri Shawl in public. Since then, the matter has been heavily discussed in the mainstream media and the anti-India statements are openly and very profoundly given. Importantly, no one (or no expert) could explain both on social media and on mainstream media that how India is helping Awami League to win elections and where is the proof?? It looks like that starting from the rickshaw-wala to eminent lawyers to politicians in Bangladesh is aware that India is destroying their democracy and India is against Bangladesh but nobody states HOW. As if, a big section of public is always ready for bashing India whenever they get an opportunity.

On the other hand, the largest opposition party BNP has shied away from contesting elections, as per them, the ruling party had the plans to sabotage the elections and there was no point in fighting an election. The party even before the elections asked for formation of an interim government to conduct the elections. But BNP must remember that they also denied such concept, when it was in power. And, a political party speaking on democracy and not participating in elections indicates that either it does not believe in the power of public opinion or it has not yet understood the very principles of democracy.

Rather it has chosen an easy way of fuelling popular anti-India sentiments among the masses and to be in public memory. The BNP should also remember that during their rule, Bangladesh had become safe-haven for anti-India insurgent groups and a huge consignment of arms and ammunitions (ready to be used by anti-India insurgent groups) was captured and it was Shaikh Hasina who had destroyed all the insurgent camps and she also ensured that the soil of Bangladesh is not used for anti-India activities anymore. This means, the BNP also could have done it however, they nurtured or helped anti-India groups who worked under their nose. BNP has always been pro Pakistan and pro-China, so it is obvious that India will be least preferred, though the nation is surrounded by India.

The intellectuals of Bangladesh has been objecting about a few things for decades, regarding the proper distribution of Ganga water, settlement of the issue related to Tista river water, killing of its citizen at the border areas by BSF and now, issues related to India getting more benefits than Bangladesh for easy transit of Indian goods transported to Northeast India through Bangladesh. It is also true that there are and there will be some issues with countries sharing huge borders. River water sharing is a real challenge between the two nations. But as far as the killing of people by BSF is concerned, people of Bangladesh must know this, as per the BSF this is due to illegal immigrations. Northeast India and the state of West Bengal has been facing the big problem of illegal influx of people from Bangladesh (both Hindus and Muslims).

The mass migration into India since Bangladesh's independence has led to the creation of anti-foreigner movements, social tensions in Northeast India and creations of accords, acts and rules for identifying the illegal migrants. In Northeast Indian states the fast demographic change could easily be understood with a large number of Bengali speaking population. The Hindu migration started from 1947 (year of partition of India) as it was East Pakistan and then during the military regime in Bangladesh it is understandable that Hindus felt insecure and came to India but how come the Bengali speaking Muslim population increased in such large numbers in Northeast India, causing huge social issues where the ethnic people of these states started to become almost a minority.

The reasons for migration of Muslims are economic in nature. In recent years implementation of NRC or National Registrar for Citizenship (applicable for both Hindu and Muslims) only for the state of Assam is self-explanatory. Importantly, Government of India assured Hasina Government that this is an internal matter of India and nobody will be deported to Bangladesh as a result of NRC. Then in a major breakthrough both the governments resolved the long pending land boundary agreement and the enclaves were exchanged, here Bangladesh got more land and India had to take more people, as the people living in these enclaves were given a choice.

During Covid situation, India supplied a big lot of free vaccines to Bangladesh when its own people were not fully vaccinated. In recent past, as per the government details, Bilateral trade has crossed remarkable level with the duty-free access given by India to Bangladesh for all items except 25. Two border haats are already operational with a few more on the anvil along the India-Bangladesh border. Investment by Indian companies (Airtel, CEAT, Marico etc.) in Bangladesh continues to grow with the signing of bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection agreement. For the first time in their post-independence history, India and Bangladesh have established inter-grid connectivity for the flow of bulk power from India to Bangladesh. A 400 KV line constructed by Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd and Power Grid Company of Bangladesh in the Eastern sector – Baharampur in India to Bheramara in Bangladesh with the load capacity of 500 MW has been established.

India has always stood by Bangladesh in its hour of need with aid and economic assistance to help it cope with natural disasters and floods. To express India's sympathy at the loss of lives and destruction as a result of cyclone 'Sidr' which hit the Bangladesh coastal areas in November 2007, the then External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee visited Bangladesh in December 2007. He also visited the cyclone-hit areas and expressed India's sympathy to the affected people of Bangladesh in their hour of need. Prior to the visit, India had declared an elaborate aid package. Aid worth over Taka 250 crore (over US $ 37 million), including supply of relief materials consisting of medicines, tents, blankets, ready-to-eat meals, portable water-purifiers, 1,000 MT of skimmed milk powder and 40,000 MT of rice was handed over to Bangladesh.

The Government of India also worked with the Government of Bangladesh for rehabilitation of ten cyclone-affected villages in the southern part of Bangladesh. India has also completed and handed over 2,800 core shelters in the affected villages in Bagerhat district in southern Bangladesh. Similarly, 2800 solar lamps have also been handed over to the beneficiaries of these core shelter houses. Similarly, Taka 230 million in the form of relief goods comprising clothing, water purification equipment and dry food was also supplied to Bangladesh after 1991 cyclone, which killed more than 1,35,000 Bangladeshi nationals. The Government of India has also been providing grant assistance to Bangladesh for various infrastructure projects including, construction of Akhaura-Agartala rail link, dredging of inland waterways in Bangladesh and construction of India- Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline.

Several intellectuals in Bangladesh has also been reacting on the Citizenship Amendment Act or the CAA terming it to be anti-Muslim but they must understand that this act is about giving citizenship and not about taking back anyone’s citizenship. It states about giving citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Christians, who migrated to India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh (who are minorities in these nations), as the subcontinent was partitioned on the basis of religion. Therefore, this has nothing to do with Indian Muslims also who are already citizens of India.

This is of course a matter of political debate in India but Bangladesh and Pakistan has nothing to comment on it, who now has almost negligible minority population. Rather Bangladesh should introspect that how the minority population in the country has declined, which was about 30% at the time of partition, above 15% in free Bangladesh and is now below 8%, whereas, the minority population in India has increased from time to time.

Many social media influencers and the experts in TV debates do not discuss about all these aspects and are misleading the masses. These debates hardly have any Indian representation to put the Indian perspective. There were elements in Bangladesh, albeit to a limited extent, that supported Pakistan and were very anti-India, which led to the partition of India in 1947, it seems that the ghost of the two-nation theory of the 40s is still playing its part.

Boddhisatya Tarafdar: History Researcher & Geopolitical Observer from Kolkata

(Opinions and writings expressed in the Point-Counterpoint section are the sole responsibility of the author and are not associated with the editorial policy of Barta24.com)

King Shashanka was the first independent and sovereign ruler of the Gaud Empire in the 7th century and a unified state in the Bengal region. King Shashanka was the sole ruler of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa up to Bhubaneswar. Many historians also call him Gaudradhipati. He started Bangabda based on the solar calendar to commemorate the coronation of King Shashanka 1400 years ago today. On the first day of Bangabda, the first independent king of Bengal, Shashank, used to celebrate this day with his subjects through various festivals and arrangements around this coronation. That is why the twelve months of Bengali New Year are named after the stars. Visakha Nakshatra to Baisakh, Jayistha to Jayishta, Shar to Ashadha, Sravani to Shravan, Bhadrapad to Bhadra, Ashvaini to Ashwin, Kartika to Kartika, Agrahayana to Agrahayana, Pausya to Pausya, Falguni to Falgun and Chitra Nakshatra to Chaitra, so on. The month is named.

In the evolution of time, that revolution became history. Mughal rule began in India in the 16th century. The "Tarikh-e-Elahi" Hijri calendar was introduced by calculating the Arabic months based on the lunar calendar in the Mughal era. The names of the twelve months of "Tarikh-i-Elahir" were Qarbadin, Ardi, Bisua, Kordad, Thir, Amardad, Shahriar, Aban, Azur, Baham and Iskandar Miz. These words for the month are actually derived from Arabic and Persian words. But the Mughals and the subjects had problems in collecting taxes. During the administration of the Mughals, the Lunar year or Hijri year was followed for the collection of land and agricultural taxes in India at that time. Farmers cultivated on the basis of the solar year and the Mughal administration collected land and agricultural taxes on the basis of the lunar year. By following the lunar calendar, taxes could not be collected from the farmers at the time of collection because the common people would have lacked money at the beginning of the Hijri year. But the farmers are not hindered from paying the fair tax in cases where they have a supply of money at the beginning of the Bengal year after bringing home the crops in Navanna. Fatehullah Siraji, a famous astronomer of the Mughal Empire, was invited to the court of Emperor Akbar to solve this problem. He was asked to solve this problem by the order of the emperor. Fatehullah Siraji then created the rules of the Bengali year by combining the solar year (Bangabda) and the Hijri year. This year was named Fasli year for harvest and tax collection. Later it was changed to Bangla year from Bangabda. On the first day of Bengali year i.e. Pahela Boisakh, people used to come to the royal court to pay taxes. Sweets were distributed to them by Emperor Akbar and cultural programs were organized for the entertainment of the subjects.

This day of Mughal emperor Akbar's collection of subjects was transformed into the first day of the Bengali calendar as "Pahela Boisakh" as a symbol of the tradition and nobility of Bengali civilization. This festival is awakened in Bengali culture absolutely. This festival of Bengali New Year is celebrated irrespective of caste and religion. Although we still notice some differences regarding the observance of Pahela Boisakh. Pahela Boishakh is celebrated in West Bengal on 15th April according to the Hindu calendar. And in Bangladesh, Pahela Boisakh is celebrated on 14th April according to the Gregorian calendar according to the guidelines of Bangla Academy.

Pahela Boisakh Origin: Associated with the ancient Hindu New Year festival that corresponds to the Vikram calendar of Sanatan Dharma. Many historians believe that King Vikramaditya invented the Bengali calendar around 57 BC. However, many historians disagree about the emergence of Vikramaditya's Bengali calendar.

Since ancient times, Bengali New Year celebrations have been observed among different castes and religions in different parts of India. In the Indian state of Assam, Assamese people celebrate "Rangali Bihu" on this day, the beginning of the New Year. Bihu is a festival of rejoicing of the Assamese after harvesting the harvest which is similar to the Bengali New Year. Similarly, the Sikhs of India also celebrate a festival called "Boishakhi" on the first day of Boisakh. Similarly in Thailand, Varsh Baran is celebrated as "Festival of Water" or Pani Utsav which is called Sangkran in Thai language. We see the picture of celebrating the beginning of the year with a water festival among some of the ancient tribal communities of our country.

The modern Pahela Boisakh started in 1917 by worshiping the British for victory in the First World War. In the 21st century, we see a commercial trend in New Year celebrations. This age-old festival has no personality as before. Under the pressure of corporate culture and capitalism, Pahela Boishakh is nothing more than a means of business gain. Irrespective of caste, religion, caste, let the new day and the New Year begin with a happy passion by celebrating Pahela Boishakh together. 

The Chhatra League of independence movement and democratic movement - this identity is not embodied now. The current identity is only Bangladesh Chhatra League, the fraternal organization of the ruling Awami League. As the name of the ruler is connected with the identity, there are many unfair acts including misuse of power, usurpation and trade. Now therefore the name is uttered with as much reverence as with fear. Such is the reality.

Every campus in the country is occupied by Chhatra League. They themselves are again divided among themselves. The only exception was Buet. In Engineering University, Chhatra League is viewed with hatred like a student camp. Chhatra League is banned there. The cause is not unknown. The atrocities of the recent past in the Chhatra League have led them to this place. In 2019, after the brutal killing of a student named Abrar Fahad in the campus, the organization came to be known as an organization of fear among the students. Although there has been a case and trial in the case of murder, the wound has not healed.

After the murder of Abrar Fahad, there was a student protest. It has spread across the country. The BUET authorities then decided to ban student politics on the campus in a very emotional decision. The decision of the Buet administration is more emotional than logical, it can be said to be over-emotional. Student politics is not banned in most campuses of the country, but it is banned in Buet. Through this, the ego of the University authorities has been revealed as well as arbitrariness. Where the Buet administration was supposed to express calmness on the matter, it also became over-emotional. Because of this, students have been disgusted with student politics for more than four years. The idea that the purpose of politics is public welfare has drifted away from them. 'Hate politics' has taken root among students. Young students, who are preparing to concentrate on building the country after completing education, come to see an environment where politics is viewed with hatred. However, in their working life, they will again be engaged in 'public welfare' managed through that politician. There will be recruitment, but it is very difficult to find applications.

In the last four years, the students of Buet related to politics were looking at them in such a way that they are forbidden objects! This year's movement or various programs started mainly at night when some people, including the central president of the Chhatra League, Saddam Hossain, entered the Buet. Although the Saddams said they took refuge there for a time because of the rain, there was no political agenda. However, the agitators are not willing to accept this statement of the Chhatra League president. No one from Chhatra League will be able to take shelter anywhere in the hostile nature of Buet campus - such an outpouring of hatred; It can be thought! However, even if the Chhatra League president had lied even though it was a political program, the students should have accepted it as their own victory and not raised the issue. But they didn't do that. Bursting with over-reaction or excessive hatred, they demanded the cancellation of the seat of Buet student Imtiaz Hossain Rabbi and his expulsion. Surprisingly, the Buet administration also canceled Imtiaz Rabbi's seat.

These over-reacted, juvenile decisions have backfired. Imtiaz Rabbi challenged the decision to ban student politics in the High Court and won. The High Court stayed the Buet-administration's decision to ban politics. Now, like other campuses in the country, student politics can be done in Buet. Although the protesting students said - they will fight the legal battle. But it is difficult for them to win the legal battle here, as two policies in one country are unlikely to be accepted by the country's highest courts.

Buet students are against formal student politics. But informally there are several organizations active there. All of them are responsive. From Jamaat-Shibir to the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir, it has been reported by various media that Buet is active in the campus.

In this movement, there is a big voice saying 'I don't want student politics in Buet'. But those who are behind it are they really out of politics. It is said that this movement is fueled by the student camp-Hizbut Tahrir; But so far it is not visible that any investigation is going on to find it out. However, Education Minister Mahibul Hasan Chowdhury Naufel said on March 30, 'Many people had complained some days ago that some militant groups were secretly conducting (Buet) activities there. We will investigate the matter in depth. But his call to all parties, the environment of education should not be destroyed in any way. And at the individual level, if someone has such a mentality that it seems to be like condoning the activities of fundamentalist or militant groups, it must be stopped and resisted. Law enforcement agencies who are there, who are investigating, will also deal with them. That applies not only to one organization but to all organizations.' When the minister said it is hopeful that it will be investigated, and if any militant group is active in Buet, it will be rooted out.

Over the past few days, we have seen that a large section of Buet students have taken a stand against student politics. They can take it. They have the right to decide to stay away from student politics. But they should not make an arbitrary claim that no one can do student politics in Buet. Some of the students will do politics if they want, if they don't they won't - that's how it should be. It can be assumed that they are in the middle of Chhatra League. Especially since the murder of Buet-student Abrar Fahad in 2019 a trauma has become deep rooted. Many people are unable to get out of there.

This trauma or pressure didn't come just like that. The incident of a student being tortured to death in his own University, the past achievements of the fraternal organization of the ruling party Awami League are turning many students away from politics. The tradition of Chhatra League, the previous role of Chhatra League in the country's independent and democratic struggle, remains unknown to many students of this generation. The gray present hides the past of tradition. It will take time to get out of it; let's But such an aversion to open politics is in no way dignified.

We want politics everywhere because if there is systematic politics in the true sense, the importance of people increases to the ruling party, to the opposition party, to all political parties, to the administration. Without overt politics, the importance of people gradually diminishes. It applies to all fields of education or mass politics. No one should be in favor of blocking the path of student politics here.

Awami League has been in power for a long time. No student organization can survive in Buet because of the Chhatra League, a fraternal organization of the ruling class—other student organizations should not back down or oppose the introduction of student politics for fear of this. They have to proceed with their own power. It is important to remember that if there is no student body, the 'assassins of darkness' will be stronger in Buet. So the field cannot be left empty. Chhatra League should also create a level playing field for other student organizations, especially left-wing organizations, to overcome their negative image in Buet. Not only to make their demands in the press conference, but also to call various student organizations for dialogue or discussion in order to build widespread public opinion in favor of systematic student politics. It never will or can be done, not because it has never been done before; At least take initiative no matter what. Whatever the outcome of this initiative, it can at least help restore their image.

After the order of the High Court, it can be assumed that student politics is returning to Buet. After this order of the High Court, if the Chhatra League does not find a way out of the gray present and thinks they are victorious, then there is nothing to gain. Rather, there is a dark cloud of fear. Let the clouds pass; Return light!