After three years....

Before the BNP assumed power a second time, I believed firmly that the AL's basic philosophy has always been to rule without opposition. This was why Bangabandhu so easily changed Bangladesh's constitution to BKSAL that in essence brought every aspect of the nation within the ambit of the Party. BKSAL and "dolyokoron", a term that has recently found great publicity in our distorted political culture, are synonymous and in its last tenure in power, the AL put this philosophy to use for good or for worse.

It is an irony that the BNP has not only followed the AL on dolyokoron; it has one-upped the AL in a game that the latter thought it alone could play. There is today nothing that the BNP does that does not pass the "BNP litmus test". This started by sorting out the pro-AL elements in the administration like the 1973 batch. Slowly, the litmus test spread to every aspect of society, and public life and what the AL did quietly, the BNP is now doing openly and with contempt. Echoing the famous statement of President Bush and his war on terrorism that said "you are either with us or against us", the BNP has likewise left no middle ground. Either one is a BNP or an AL supporter and being the latter means a gridlock on one's life and livelihood.

BNP's dolyokoron has another problem. Unlike the AL, BNP does not have the committed following where party elements are easily identifiable. One supports the AL because as a student he/she was a Chattra Leaguer or his/her father was an AL man . BNP supporters have no such credentials and many are just self-seekers. As a result, within the so-called BNP camp, there is a small inner core who carry a list of BNP hardcore loyalists that does not make those BNP supporters outside safe. The country has thus fallen prey to a very small coterie.

Dolyokoron hangs like the Sword of Damocles and unless this cancer is healed , the BNP administration would not be able to do anything worthwhile in its remaining two years.