Thaindian News

Dhaka, July 18 (IANS) Should the term “secularism” be restored to the Bangladesh constitution? This question has led to a political debate in the Islamic republic, with the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) describing it as an “evil design”.
Political parties are also contemplating whether to bring back the term ’socialism’ into the constitution.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last Friday announced that her government would constitute an all-party committee to go into various issues thrown up by a Supreme Court verdict in February. The committee is to be constituted during the current session of parliament.

While the BNP is against inclusion of the term “seculariam”, which is anathema to its Islamist ally, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, the Left-leaning allies of the government want to go back to the “pristine” nature of the statute book. The ruling Awami League has not taken an official stand so far.

Bangladesh witnessed several political and constitutional changes during the military-led regimes between August 1975 and 1990 when ’socialism’ was dropped and ’secularism’ was replaced by a declaration that the country is an “Islamic Republic”.

The high court had earlier declared illegal and void all the martial law regulations proclaimed between Aug 15, 1975 and April 1979.

The high court said: “…acts and things done and actions and proceedings taken during the period from August 15, 1975 to April 9, 1979, are condoned as past and closed transactions.”

The changes in the statute book were affected during the rule of Ziaur Rahman, husband of opposition leader Khaleda Zia and by H.M. Ershad, now part of the ruling alliance.

BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain saw “evil designs” in the proposed move and said the country “should not go backwards”.

However, Moudud Ahmed, a senior BNP leader who had been engaged in the framing of the constitution during 1972-73, welcomed the idea of an all-party body.

Media reports quote ruling AL party insiders as indicating that any move to undo the nomenclature of Islamic Republic could cause a backlash at home and in the Islamic world.

On the other hand, socialism is viewed as a Cold War era inclusion.

“Let us start the discussions, we will definitely go back to our Constitution as it was adopted in 1972,” Rashed Khan Menon, the chief of the Workers Party told New Age.

Other parties including the Communist Party of Bangladesh and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal echoed Menon’s views.