As anticipated earlier, Interim Government has officially banned the country's oldest political party, Awami League, besides all its affiliate organisations under the Anti-Terrorism Act - a legal instrument introduced by none other than Awami League in 2009, but with required amendments to ban a political party.
The ban had come neither as a surprise, nor as a shock to this writer.
I was never a political element, never held any political office in any capacity and most important to say, I never had a role model in domestic or international politics. When asked whether politics is bad or good, my answer has always been short &simple - it is up to the people who practice it otherwise, the politicians.
Engaging in politics is risky, but to be ignorant about it is sheer stupidity and particularly when you are surrounded by politicians of all sorts. Ones at my office are the worst.
However, banning of the country's oldest political party exposed another dark side of Sheikh Hasina, compelling this writer to question couldn't she have stopped it with her one and most important ally India? Couldn't she have led the party while in exile? Couldn't she have chosen the few good party men left or trapped in the country, thus create a provisional leadership so to continue the party's journey?
While the questions are far too many about her mysterious silence and failure, her arch political rival BNP has far and louder answers. The party not only struggled, survived and now thriving, but it successfully managed to pass through testing times with Mrs Zia behind bars and her fugitive son in London. Those who say, she was kind enough not to ban BNP are wrong.
The former PM, desired to see BNP bleed by the hour, but not dead.
Then the question automatically arises, if BNP could have managed to sustain as a party under her severe political purges, where had she so badly failed to spearhead AL in the last 10 months?
If you reflect back to all herimpractical, capricious and disruptive audio clips, intentionally leaked after her fleeing to India, does at least one of them speak of a sane politician attempting to rise and carry forward her party from the ashes?
Only one provoking and impulsive clip was enough to trigger complete demolition of her family's historic residence amid wild jubilation. Countless homes owned by AL leaders across the country were torched in the process. And rest of the clips eventually resulted in completely de-moralising her party men to the hilt.
This writer has no idea what she is consuming inside a secret cushy Indian home, but her inconsistent and incoherent speeches had only echoed of an extremely death-defiant and egotistic fallen angel living in utter self-denial.
While political outcomes of banning the Bangladesh Awami League is a completely separate discourse, but her marked silence, indifference and reluctance to lead her party through a substitute leadership merits the question whether she trusts her party men and supporters at all?
In fact, Ms Hasina reminds me of her late father's tumultuous political days and imprisonment in Pakistan right after the 26 March crackdown in 1971. The then Awami League top-brass had unrelentingly requested Sheikh Mujib for a recorded political speech, anticipating an imminent military crackdown and political crisis. Sheikh Mujib, also Bangabandhu always refrained from recording an audio speech with confirmed mystery, ambiguity and obscurity.
The disturbing and confusing debates we engage in after 53 years since our inception as an independent nation -particularly on the topic of when and who had declared independence of Bangladesh first -yet remains a bitter fruit born out of our bloody War of Independence till today.
However, Sheikh Mujib's arrest and imprisonment may not have been under his control in erstwhile East Pakistan, but his eldest daughter's reality was different while holding the highest political office in independent Bangladesh.
Had she been killed or murdered for refusing to flee the country on that auspicious or inauspicious 5 August, history would have surely define and re-define her albeit with opposing narratives.
Tajuddin & Co fought valiantly in absence of Mujib's political guidance by forming a government in exile, and that too was from India. It is only true that Mujib's men enjoyed a nationwide invisible mandate and people's trust. Lest we forget, Mujib was also a man who had spent an unimaginable 4,682 days or nearly 13 years in prison in his less than 55 years of life till emergence of independent Bangladesh. The rest is history.
Coming back to the topic of banning the Awami League in Bangladesh, Ms Hasina could have surely done enough to navigate her party through troubled waters. Her biggest ally India could have done even more provided the Modi government rightly guided her to resume Awami league's political journey in Bangladesh. Not for Modi, but for India's own geopolitical advantages in the region.
Strictly a personal remark, Sheikh Hasina has become a spent force for Modi government and also restoring Awami League in Bangladesh. For her she was the party and she doesn't own it anymore. It was perhaps the same with her illustrious late father's relationship with Awami League.
Questions automatically arise, did she ever safeguarded her party or was it the party who safeguarded her staying in power during the last 15 plus years?
Unlike Indian and Pakistani political dynasties, she seemingly groomed none to succeed her leading the party from the forefront, so why hadn't she declared a political successor to lead the party at home while residing in India?
The fact, however, politicians cannot afford the luxury to live in a world of nostalgia, enigma and illusion, with or without power.
Let's not go too far, the Gandhi, Sharif or Bhutto dynasties continues to prove it. Irrespective of numerous deaths within the families and colossal challenges, they have always owned their respective parties. They issued orders and directions from abroad while inspiring their party people to persevere during a crisis.
Unfortunately, for the Bangladesh Awami League, Sheikh Hasina never seemed to have owned her party and supporters; she had merely used it as a political tool to assume and cling to power.
While penning this piece, I couldn't recall a single speech, where she came up with a concrete roadmap for her party's crisis-time political journey.
You are welcome to ask, what can she do now to lift the ban imposed on Awami League and lead it while in exile?
This answer is fairly simple and straight, absolutely nothing. In the last 10 or so months she has manifestly proved herself as a political queen of missed opportunities guiding her party.
So far, have you come across any authentic or even a leaked audio response from her on banning Awami League in Bangladesh. Did Ms Hasina or any of her family members, at least called an official press conference protesting the ban?
Just couple of days ago, I laughed at myself while going through the Indian foreign ministry's press release saying- India is concerned over Bangladeshi Government's decision to ban Awami League.
First the Indian government failed to protect and keep her in power, and then they failed once more aiding her on how to resume her party's political journey.
No wonder, what a questionable ally for a questionable politician.
In the end, more than the Interim Government, it was she who had to hammer the last nail in her party's coffin, largely due to her self-centred inept leadership.
Perhaps one day Awami League will have a new birth under a different leadership while Ms Hasina will be crying out loud from her own coffin - never trust the living.
Skeletons scare me, I can't break coffins, but I can surely take a coffee break.
The writer is Editorial Chief, The Daily Observer
