Manna, the maverick civil society impresario’s fall from grace

Mahmudur Rahman Manna may have been a charismatic student leader among his peers who won the DUCSU and CUCSU polls but he never tasted victory in general elections.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 23 Feb 2015, 07:18 PM
Updated : 23 Feb 2015, 07:28 PM

Now, his leaked telephone conversations are making headlines where he is heard seeking military intervention in Bangladesh to end the current political unrest.

The former Bangladesh Chhatra League leader jumped from JaSad to BaSaD and Janata Mukti Party before returning to the Awami League.

His role during the military-backed caretaker government in attempts to exile Awami League President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and BNP chief Khaleda Zia from politics has been much criticised by the ruling party leaders.

Then the Awami League organising secretary, he fell from grace.

But, now, when the BNP-led coalition is enforcing a violent blockade that has claimed over 100 lives, he is back in the news.

Manna, pressing for an Awami League-BNP dialogue to end the unrest, leads the Nagarik Oikya, which is working to create an alternative political force, according to its declaration.
He had earlier warned of military intervention in the absence of an understanding between the two bickering political parties.
In two leaked telephone conversations, available with bdnews24.com, he is heard telling BNP leader Sadeque Hossain Khoka to engineer clashes over occupying Dhaka University residential halls.
‘A few deaths’ during such head-on confrontations could destabilise the government, he is heard saying.
In another phone conversation with a person unidentified so far, the Nagarik Oikya convener said he was keen to play a role in a military takeover.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina says those pushing for talks with the BNP were trying to put some unconstitutional force in power.
Manna, born in Bogra, came to Dhaka in 1964 and passed the SSC from Armanitola School. He had his higher secondary degree from the Dhaka College two years later.
His political career started with Chhatra League in his student days and joined JaSaD after independence. At the age of 22, he became the general secretary of JaSaD’s student front in 1973.
He was elected general secretary of Chittagong University’s student body in 1972. Seven years later, he became the Dhaka University Central Student's Union (DUCSU) vice president from JaSaD student wing.
Maverick Manna went with Khalequzzaman and AFM Mahbubul Haq when they broke away from JaSaD and floated BaSaD. He was elected the DUCSU VP for a second time in 1980 from the BaSaD student front.
Awami League leader Aktaruzzaman was the general secretary of the both DUCSU committees.
Manna took active part in the anti-autocracy movement as a BaSaD leader between 1983 and 1990.
From there, he joined the Janata Mukti Party, floated by former JaSaD leader Mirza Sultan Raja.
But the Mukti Party later merged with the Awami League, and Manna was eventually made the party’s organising secretary.
He contested parliamentary polls on Awami League tickets from the Bogra-2 constituency but lost. In the 2001 polls, he lost to BNP’s Rejaul Bari by some 69,000 votes.
But that did not stop him from becoming the party’s organising secretary, a post he held during the caretaker government.
Manna made headlines again at that time, demanding ‘reforms’ within the party. Other Awami League leaders like Abdur Razzaque, Tofail Ahmed, Amir Hossain Amu, and Suranjit Sengupta, too, were known as reformists.
Party chief Hasina left Razzaque, Tofail, Amu and Suranjit in the cold when the Awami League came to power in the next election. They also lost their posts in the party’s policymaking presidium.
Manna became somewhat detached after losing his post in the party’s 2009 council. He, along with several others did not make it back, although Tofail and Amu were given Cabinet berths.
But he kept appearing in discussion programmes and television talk-shows. During this time, he was seen representing a part of the ‘civil society’, leading to his closeness with Ganaforum chief Dr Kamal Hossain.
In 2012, the 62-year-old announced the formation of Nagarik Oikya. It has eventually shaped up as a political party, although the organisation initially worked as a citizen body.
He told Khoka in the leaked conversation that his ambition was to make the Oikyo the 'third most important party' in Bangladesh.