Registration of political parties
Suggestions, counter suggestions and controversies are raging in the public mind and the media whether to allow registration of political parties based on religion. This is a wider question than whether to allow a particular party or parties which opposed the Bangladesh independence struggle on the basis of religion, to be registered, because it should be noted that the creation of Pakistan and its separation from India was only possible because of the then Muslim League which was a political party based exclusively on the religion of Islam. The Congress Party (founded I understand by an Englishman!) was, on the other hand, a fully democratic party with followers of all religions being allowed to be its members. This difference in nature of those two parties at that time perhaps is the reason for the sympathy of the last Viceroy Mountbatten and the British government of the day to the demands and aspirations of the Congress, rather than the Muslim League.
We have of course come sixty years since then. This is indeed a long time for change and development of society and political system if we look at Africa's progress in the last 136 years as it was only on 10 Nov 1871 that Stanley met Livingstone in the African rainforest. In modern sovereign Bangladesh consisting of many small religious minorities such as Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and tribals, is there now any reason for a Muslim religious political party to safeguard the interest of Muslims? Or is such a political party pursued only for the ulterior motive of grabbing authoritative and absolute power by exploiting the faith of the common people? It is clear that there is now a golden opportunity to make political parties in Bangladesh truly democratic and neutral, and everyone who legally qualifies as a voter should be able enroll as a member of any party of his /her choice and this choice must not be precluded by the name or constitution of a party.
This is why a political party which sifts its membership by discriminating against race, religion, sex, vocation etc must not be allowed to be registered in Bangladesh.
So whether or not a party like the Jamaat-e- Islami collaborated with the Pakistan army, it should be banned. By the same token, a political party named say 'Mohila party' , 'Mazdur party', 'Krishak party', or 'Rickshaw puller party' or even 'The Northern party' etc which will include only one faction of citizenry should also be banned under proper rules for registration.
However, to safeguard the interests of these sections there must not be any bar for them to form non-political clubs or parties and remain as 'pressure groups', and they may field a non-partisan independent political candidate in any election to pursue their interests or interest of any local groups. To safeguard against abuse of partisanship, all political candidates for election must be restricted to stand for only one constituency seat and no more, as is the practice in western democracies.
It is interesting to note that some countries in the west still use religious terms for some political parties ( eg in Northern Ireland and Germany (Christian Democrats) etc), but we in Bangladesh must rise above such discrimination and use our golden opportunity for establishing truly inclusive and impartial democracy.
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