On the 17th of December members of the police force raided one of the offices of the Islami Chattrishangstha, a female student Islamist organization affiliated to the Jamaat-e-Islami (third largest party in Bangladesh), and arrested 20 on suspicion of terrorism.

This comes at a time when the Jamaat-e-Islami has initiated a fierce anti-government movement with the help of its alliance partner, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (main opposition party) and the embarrassing terrorism related incident involving members of the Chattra League (student organization affiliated to the party in power, the Awami League) murdering a member of the Hindu minority community, in broad daylight taped by cameramen of various visual media-houses. Understandably the government is under pressure; however one is baffled to understand the purpose behind harassing members of the fairer sex over issues of inter-party squabbles, especially when the Prime Minister herself is a woman.

It is an unwritten law in the political landscape of Bangladesh that no matter what one party may do to the other (rob, injure or murder), the political bigwigs will be exempted from unnecessary harassment and so will the members of the fairer sex. However in context to the Jamaat-e-Islami, both the unwritten conventions have been desecrated. Firstly when the JEI leaders has been incarcerated for more than 3 years under trail on dubious charges of war crimes in a court described by Human Rights Watch as seriously failing to comply with international standards of justice. Secondly when the government sent its police force and rounded up 20 young members of the female students’ organization associated to the JEI, on trumped up charges. It is especially concerning because in a volatile political landscape such as Bangladesh, the path taken by the BAL could prove to be a slippery slope where political vendetta no longer be confined to between male foot-soldiers of parties, therefore further poisoning the feeble democratic culture in this budding third world nation.

Targeted harassment of members of the opposition’s fairer sex may indicate the complete loss of direction on part of the party in power. With only around a year of their legitimate mandate left and dealing with the lowest ebb in their popularity in 30 years, desperation seems to have crept in the BAL. Quite a few incidents will go down in history as the present party’s major areas of failure such as the BDR carnage, stock market scandal, and Padma Bridge corruption and the complete lack of justice in bringing the perpetrators of each incident to book. Lack of sincerity in establishing justice is also evident in the much hyped International War Crimes Tribunal where international lawyers are barred from participating, defense witnesses are kidnapped by state security forces in front of the court, political pressure on judges engaged in extremely unprofessional behavior and prosecution witnesses’ testimonies allowed to be recorded even if they are physically absent in the court.

Many would argue that the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is the worst government in the history of Bangladesh, second only to the government of her father 40 years ago when the Bangladeshi people suffered the worst famine in recent history, caused as much by lack of food due to floods as the state’s incompetence and insincerity in dealing with the famine. Amyerta Sen’s used the Bangladesh famine of 1974 as case-study for a dissertation on government ineptitude in exacerbating food crisis into famine, and studies such as these were the reasons behind him receiving the Nobel Prize in 1998. BAL’s cause for concern is the repercussions it will face if it loses power in the next general elections, in the tit for tat political repressions, now regardless of the position of power. The International War Crimes Tribunal will also come to haunt the BAL as many of its present senior political members were part of the anti-liberation struggle during 1971 war of independence like Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s daughter’s father-in-law.