Recently, Shafiqul Alam, Press Secretary to the Chief Advisor of the interim government, posted a picture on Facebook of himself throwing dirt into a dustbin featuring a portrait of Sheikh Hasina at the Bangla Academy on the first day of the Ekushey Book Fair. His post faces some criticism from a number of people. One of the people criticising the post is Anu Mohammad, the environmentalist and activist. Now, you may find it difficult to fathom why, of all people, Anu Mohammad would criticize the post. After all, he was constantly criticizing the Hasina government during the last BAL administration and was a thorn in the side of the BAL government. 

The same thing happened when Chief Advisor Younus told a new media that the reset button has been pushed and there is no past. Z I Khan Panna, the lawyer of the Supreme Court criticised the comment saying that people can push the reset button like they did in 1971. Such a comment from Mr. Panna was a bit unexpected as he was also criticising the Hasina government and represented the students in the court during the July uprising. 

These two incidents were criticised by a number of people. And these people have been often tagged as BAL supporters or BAL sympathizers or ‘shushil’. But can you really tag Anu Mohammad and Z I Khan Panna as BAL supporters or BAL sympathisers? Are they raising their opposition because they are supporting BAL or there is something else? 

To me, they and others are raising their voice because they do not like the closeness of Jammat with the current interim government. Since the fall of the Hasina regime, we are seeing that Jamaat is getting a foothold in the key institutions of the country. Their people are appointed as VCs of universities. They go back to their origin and try to remove or hide their role in 1971 and remove history. So when the government removed 17 March speech  as a national day, it did not bode well with a large number of people who hold 1971 in their core. When the current leaders of Jamaat and Shibir question the trial of the war criminal, these people feel they are being challenged personally. 

So when Shafiqul Alam posted a picture of a dustbin featuring a portrait of Sheikh Hasina, lots of the people felt dejected and asked what about the Jamaat and Shibir who are trying to erase the history of this country and what Shafiqul Alam is doing about them. These people are not BAL supporters or sympathisers. They want a better society where Jamaat will not be patronised or prioritized. Ignoring these people will be fatal for the current interim government as this issue goes into the legitimacy of the interim government which is not elected. The faster the interim government understands this, the better.