Md. Nurul Haque
History has a way of repeating itself; as farce draped in borrowed sanctity. On the eve of the French Revolution, when hunger clawed at the bellies of the poor, the medieval Church sold certificates of heaven– parchments promising salvation in exchange for coins. God was monetised, sin was negotiable, and morality was outsourced to the highest bidder. Paris eventually burned. Guillotines followed. The people discovered that when heaven is put on sale, Hell soon arrives on earth.
Heaven is no longer sold in parchment but in promises. Patriotism is bartered for power. Religion is reduced to a campaign slogan. And BNP and Jamaat, once claiming opposite moral high grounds, now appear united by the obsession of capturing power at any cost.
Post-mass uprising, one expected reflection, repentance, and resolve. Instead, we see recklessness. The BNP, bruised by years of repression, now speaks with strange amnesia. Its leaders publicly declare that they do not believe in religious law or institutional regulation; that their utterance, their will, will define religious boundaries. This is not secular clarity; it is authoritarian temptation dressed as pragmatism. Faith becomes elastic when votes are at stake.
This sudden theological flexibility is not accidental. It is electoral arithmetic. BNP is fishing in Awami League’s abandoned pond, hoping to net disillusioned voters by shedding ideological skin. In doing so, it has forgotten its own blood-soaked past- the forced disappearances of its activists, the false cases, the midnight raids, the burnt homes, the children killed, the bodies torched even after death. The party that once mourned is now negotiated. The party that once resisted now rehabilitates. In an irony thick as smog, BNP leaders are quietly helping the fallen Awami League return to political respectability, as if history were a chalkboard that could be wiped clean overnight.
This political Alzheimer’s is not homegrown alone. The fingerprints of Delhi’s prescription are visible; soft normalisation, managed opposition, controlled outrage. National sovereignty is loudly spoken of yet subcontracted silently. Patriotism, it seems, is celebrated on podiums and surrendered in backrooms.
Jamaat-e-Islami has perfected the art of moral contradiction. A party that once thundered about injustice now whispers forgiveness when it smells power. Leaders who were hanged or judicially crucified are invoked in speeches but abandoned in strategy. Not a single sustained street movement. Not even the courage to stay awake at night when repression loomed. Now Jamaat leaders proclaim that they have “forgiven and forgotten” the crimes of the Awami League; the same crimes that sent their leaders to the gallows. Forgiveness without justice is not Islam; it is convenience.
And now comes the ultimate theological circus: Jamaat fielding Hindu candidates while simultaneously promising an Islamic system of governance. Inclusion is a virtue; hypocrisy is not. You cannot sell Sharia as destiny while treating ideology as disposable packaging. This is not pluralism, it is political cosplay. Religion becomes a costume, changed according to constituency.
Listen to their media speeches. They are not sermons; they are sales pitches. Votes are discussed with more passion than values. Fasting is rhetorically blended with Durga Puja as if theology were a smoothie. Harmony is noble, but confusion is not. Faith traditions deserve respect, not opportunistic fusion for applause. When religion is mixed carelessly, it curdles into cynicism.
Both BNP and Jamaat leaders routinely accuse each other of past mistakes, yet now compete in a race to the bottom. A senior BNP figure recently boasted that politics must come before principles. A Jamaat spokesperson countered that, for the greater good, past grievances must be buried. These are not statements of statesmanship; they are confessions.
While these parties chase microphones and ministries, the real resistance has been lonely and dangerous. Figures like Hadi, who dared to demand accountability for Awami League crimes, did not negotiate. They mobilised. They are named perpetrators. They are frightened of comfort. For this, Hadi became a target of Indian prescription, of local collaborators, of a system allergic to justice. Names like Hasnat, Dr. Jara, Barrister Fuad, and others now circulate in whispered lists of assassination threats. This is the real battlefield, far from press conferences and party banquets.
The tragedy is not merely moral; it is strategic. If BNP and Jamaat continue this solo sprint for power, tripping each other while flattering former oppressors, they will guarantee the very outcome they claim to oppose. A divided opposition is a red carpet for the Awami League’s return. And if that return happens, it will not be a restoration; it will be a burial. Democratic space will shrink further. Sovereignty will erode faster. Independence may be mortgaged indefinitely. All the political parties should realise and recognise that the second independence they call it has not come alone. At the same time, they tried to get out of the grip of the fascist, which has come true with the sacrifice and self-abnegation of innocent blood and the harrowing agony of numerous mothers for losing their beloved souls. The more Jamaat and BNP are divided, the faster the return of the fascists will accelerate, and once they come back, both parties will face a risk to their survival and an existential crisis. Nations do not fall overnight. They are sold piece by piece; first, principles, then memory, and finally, courage.
The French learned too late that when heaven is auctioned, revolution becomes inevitable. Bangladesh still has time. But only if politics rediscovers patriotism, and religion is rescued from vote banks. Power without morality is tyranny in waiting. Faith without justice is idolatry. And patriotism without sovereignty is nothing but a flag-shaped lie. History is watching. It is patient but never forgiving.
(The views expressed in the article are of the authors own)
The writer is an Assistant Professor, English, IUBAT and a PhD candidate at UPM, Malaysia
