An ugly cruelty of playing ‘Zia card’

Shahidul Islam Shahid :
With the two top politicians-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and former premier Begum Khaleda Zia-making allegation against each other of ‘possibility of complicity’ with the ‘plotters of Zia killing’, the country’s confrontational politics is poised to embrace a new phase of bitter rivalry, where both the major parties-the ruling Awami League (AL) and main opposition BNP-will play a ‘painful Zia card’ to outmaneuver each other.
Leading political analysts in the capital said this while talking to The New Nation on Tuesday.
“None of them can achieve substantial gain by playing ‘Zia card’ in their ‘blame game of narrow power politics’ since the people will not believe such stories,” Dr Siarajul Islam Chowdhury of Dhaka University told this Correspondent on Tuesday.
“The people know the real story of Zia killing, which is by now established through media reports over the years. None of the two top nationalist leaders will be able to gain any mileage through this blame game,” the Emeritus Professor said. Prof Dr Asif Nazrul opined, “It will be nothing but an ugly cruelty of our politics if ‘Zia card’ is played by the AL and BNP.”
BNP Chairperson Begum Zia renewed the allegation on Sunday at a public meeting at Jaipurhat apparently to counter a recent observation of Sheikh Hasina, also the AL President, that ‘real killers’ of former President Ziaur Rahman could be identified if Khaleda and her eldest son Tarique Rahman were questioned in remand.
 “She (Khaleda) had relation with Zia’s killers. Otherwise, she could not take two houses, car and regular monthly remuneration from the person, whom she is now blaming for killing Ziaur Rahman,” the Primer told a function recently, adding, “Khaleda Zia is the prime beneficiary of Zia killing,” the analysts pointed out.
However, neither Khaleda nor any leader of her party has given any reply to the Prime Minister’s assertion.
Addressing the Jaipurhat meeting, Khaleda Zia said, “There might be relation between Sheikh Hasina’s home coming from India on May 17, 1981 and the killing of Zia 13 days after her arrival on May 30. Otherwise, why you (Hasina) had tried to cross the border after Zia’s death?”
Earlier, BNP Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakrul Islam Alamgir first made the allegation on June 3 to rebuff the Prime Minister’s assertion a day before that Zia would have been tried in Bangabandhu Murder case had he been alive. Sheikh Hasina made the comment on June 2 while addressing Awami League Central Working Committee (ALCWC) meeting in the city, the political analysts recalled.  
None of the AL leaders, however, refuted Khaleda’s comment till filing of this so far.
 “Nobody will believe Khaleda Zia’a allegation against Sheikh Hasina because the AL President, during that time, was not in a position to conspire to kill President Ziaur Rahman,” Asif Nazrul said, adding, “The Prime Minister’s allegation against Begum Zia is more unbelievable and cruel. We have seen, in Begum Zia, the pain of losing her husband. It is cruel to blame a widow of killing her own husband.”
Prof Dr Nehal Karim said, “Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia made the allegations due to their ‘personal enmity’. Both of them know that the people are helpless they have no alternative. So, Awami League and BNP play such a rude game.”
Expressing deep shock over what he termed ‘latest quarrels’ of the two top leaders, Prof Sirajul Islam Chowdhury said, “I am sorry that our two nationalist political parties-Awami League and BNP-have no concern about the country’s burning issues. The people’s main issues are economic development and personal security. The two parties are unconcerned about these. They don’t address the problems of unemployment and improving living standard of the people. So, they always play blame game.”
Making similar observations, Nehal Karim posed a question to both the Prime Minister and former premier, “Why both of you have refrained from holding trial of Zia killing and Monzoor killing in the past when both of you were in power for at least two terms each.”
Asif Nazrul concluded, saying, “The root cause of such allegations is nothing but intellectual inability (of the two top politicians) to debate