Between legacy and reinvention

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) marked its 48th founding anniversary on Tuesday with wreath-laying, tributes and a renewed pledge from Prime Minister Tarique Rahman to deepen democracy, even as critics inside and outside the party pressed an uncomfortable question: is the BNP still the party its founder, late president Ziaur Rahman, envisioned, or has power begun to erode it from within?

The anniversary comes less than a year after the party returned to office through the 13th parliamentary election held in February, capping what party leaders describe as a 17-year struggle against the government of Sheikh Hasina, which was ousted in August 2024.

Hundreds of BNP activists were killed and, by the party’s own account, roughly four million leaders and workers faced politically motivated cases during that period.

That history was very much present on Tuesday morning. Rahman arrived at the graves of his father, the BNP’s founder and former president, and his mother, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar shortly after 9 a.m., laying wreaths alongside members of the party’s standing committee.

The delegation offered Fateha and joined a special prayer for the two leaders.
Later in the day, meeting with Anda Filip, secretary general of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, at the Secretariat, Rahman framed his government’s mission in explicitly democratic terms.

“People have high expectations from democracy,” he said, adding that sustainable progress could be ensured “only through an effective and strong democratic system.”

He described the years of street agitation against the Hasina government as a fight ultimately vindicated by the restoration of democratic rule.

But the anniversary also arrived amid signs of strain. Political analysts note that opposition parties have grown increasingly distrustful of the government, pointing to unmet reform promises and what they describe as irregularities, corruption and the creeping politicization of state institutions.

Separately, party workers and local leaders have faced accusations of extortion and other criminal activity in the months since the BNP took power – a pattern critics say sits uneasily against the party’s own narrative of having emerged, after nearly two decades in the wilderness, as a champion of clean governance.

The party has not been static in office. Since taking charge, the Rahman-led government has pursued a mix of initiatives on foreign employment, women’s empowerment, agriculture, education and the economy, and has begun implementing the manifesto it issued ahead of the national election.

Analysts say the government is also navigating a genuinely difficult inheritance: a battered economy, deteriorating law and order, and persistent power and energy shortages left over from the previous administration.

Founding Charter Still Cited as the Party’s Compass
The BNP’s founding document – Ziaur Rahman’s 19-point program, unveiled on April 30, 1977 – remains a touchstone for the party, nearly half a century after it was written.

Party veterans and political archives describe self-reliance, rural development and national unity as the charter’s core pillars, alongside pledges to safeguard national sovereignty, uphold the constitutional principles of faith, democracy, nationalism and social justice, and expand people’s participation in local administration.

The document also emphasized protecting the rights of citizens regardless of religion or caste, boosting agricultural output and water management in a flood-prone delta, accelerating industrial growth, and meeting basic needs such as food, housing, education and health care.

Later points addressed anti-corruption measures, labor rights, civil service and land reform, population control, and incentives for the private sector, along with a foreign policy built on sovereignty, non-interference and closer ties with Muslim-majority countries.

Ziaur Rahman formally adopted the charter as his government’s guiding manifesto after his election to the presidency.

Nearly 49 years later, the party now governing Bangladesh says it is still pursuing that same vision – even as it faces fresh questions, after its long climb back to power, about how faithfully that vision is being carried out.