‘Fielding ex-Jamaat people is stupid’: Dr Kamal Hossain tells Indian newspaper

Jatiya Oikya Front chief Dr Kamal Hossain has regretted forging an alliance with the BNP citing the nomination of Jamaat-e-Islami leaders by the coalition in a conversation with an Indian newspaper.

“I am sorry to say that fielding ex-Jamaat people is stupid,” he told The Indian Express on Wednesday.

“I had given it in writing that there will be no support to Jamaat, no bringing in religion, fundamentalism, extremism etc,” the newspaper quoted him as saying in a report published on Thursday.

“Had I known (that Jamaat leaders will be given BNP tickets), I would not have been part of it, but I will not stay a single day if these people have any role in the future government,” Dr Kamal told The Indian Express.

Speaking about the process to form the alliance, Dr Kamal told the newspaper: “I was just practising law when BNP’s secretary general Fakhrul Islam came to meet me a few months ago and asked me to lead the front. I was aware of what was happening throughout the country, so I agreed.”

Dr Kamal Hossain, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and other Jatiya OIkya Front leaders briefing the media after a dialogue with Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina on Nov 1, 2018.

About Dr Kamal, the Indian newspaper wrote: “More than three decades after he played a key role in bringing Sheikh Hasina from her exile in India to mount a challenge against Zia-ur-[Rahman], this veteran of Bangladesh politics and once a close aide to her father stands as Prime Minister Hasina’s principal challenger in the country which will hold elections on Sunday.

“Meet Kamal Hossain, former law and foreign minister in Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Cabinet between 1971 and 1975, and, almost four-and-half decades later, now head of the Jatiyo Oikyo Front (National United Front) — the main opposition in Bangladesh’s fiercely-contested election.”

On the  BNP’s poor track record with India, he told The Indian Express: “BNP has told India that we have been wrong. When Khaleda Zia went to India, she told them. It was part of their rehabilitation process, she began to correct (the position).”

He also criticised the practice of dynasties ruling in Bangladesh and other South Asian nations.

Dr Kamal had the conversation with The Indian Express “just minutes after” after a police team met him to discuss his security.

The meeting followed Dr Kamal’s harsh criticism of the law enforcers for “favouring ruling party candidates in the election”.

The Oikya Front has alleged widespread attacks on and police harassment of its candidates and supporters before the election.

“I am no challenger. I am just an 80-year-old man… I am just working to restore the rule of law, democracy in the country,” Dr Kamal is quoted by The Indian Express as saying.  

“I am waiting for the election day. The election day is a liberation day. It will be second liberation day if it’s free and fair election,” he told the newspaper.

Jatiya Oikya Front leaders, led by Dr Kamal Hossain, pay tribute to the martyred intellectuals at the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial at Mirpur in Dhaka on Dec 14, 2018. Photo: Asif Mahmud Ove

Earlier Dr Kamal had apologised following intense criticism for asking a Bangladeshi reporter to “shut up” after facing questions on the Jamaat on the Martyred Intellectuals Day. He later ducked questions on the same issue.

The court has cancelled the Jamaat’s registration with the Election Commission, but around two dozen leaders of the party are contesting in the polls as candidates of the BNP’s Jatiya Oikya Front alliance with the ‘paddy sheaf’ symbol.

Several quarters have criticised the BNP for giving the Jamaat, including family members of its leaders convicted of war crimes, the opportunity to contest in the election.

Even Mahbubur Rahman, a member of the BNP’s policymaking body the National Standing Committee, has termed “unfortunate” his party’s alliance with the Jamaat, which opposed Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan in the 1971 Liberation War.

“The Jamaat is known as a war criminal party. The BNP cannot have any relations with them. It’s unfortunate to allow any member of a war criminal to use the ‘paddy sheaf’ symbol. The BNP must take responsibility for the act,” he told bdnews24.com.