The Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s (BNP) landslide victory in the recent elections may just be the beginning of a protracted face-off with the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami and National Citizen Party (NCP). Central to this is the BNP’s refusal to join the Constitution Reform Commission (CRC) despite backing the July Charter of referendum, underscoring a schism in the country’s politics.

The simultaneous staging of the general election and the referendum meant the elected MPs had to take two oaths — one as MP and the second as a CRC member. The second oath obligated the MPs to implement the July Charter. “Taking oath as CRC member would bind us to implement the July Charter, overriding our notes of dissent to key provisions of the charter,” a senior BNP leader told National Herald.

Asserting that the CRC’s formation remains outside the formal constitution Salahuddin Ahmed, BNP’s policy-making standing committee member and newly elected MP, said: “We have not been elected as members of the Constitution Reform Council; creation of the council is yet to be incorporated in the Constitution.”

Things came to a head on the morning of 17 February when newly elected Jamaat and NCP members initially refused to take oath as MPs. “We will take no oath unless BNP MPs do so as members of Constitution Reform Council alongside regular MPs,” said Jamaat’s deputy chief Abdullah Mohammad Taher. They relented after intense backroom parleys and took dual oaths but boycotted the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman and his Cabinet. The ruling BNP, however, remains outside the CRC.

So why did the Jamaat and NCP eventually relent? “Not taking oaths was not our party’s........

© National Herald