The age-old philosophy that “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” has officially died a quiet death in Bogura. For LGRD State Minister Mir Shahe Alam, a name is not just an identifier – it is prime real estate.
The entire country is now buzzing over his obsession with legacy.
For this influential minister, power must be readable. If his name, his wife’s, his sons’, and his daughter’s are not engraved on every surrounding wall, what is the point of being powerful?
While his recent antics over naming three union parishads sparked public outrage, locals know this is a long-standing whim.
Expressing the region’s collective eyeroll, a senior citizen from Bogura told TIMES of Bangladesh, “Some show off their riches to boost their profile, but others genuinely think that inflating their name is the only way to elevate their social standing.”
From classrooms to fuel pumps: The family name franchise
The state minister’s obsession with self-branding is not a recent whim, it is a meticulous, two-decade-long crusade that began in 2001.
It started locally with the establishment of the Betgari Mir Shahe Alam Girls High School. According to headmistress Mahbuba Alauddin, Shahe Alam donated the land himself. While the MPO-listed school now serves over 400 students, the family stamp is unavoidable: a prominent campus building bears the name of his wife, Laboni Akhter.
Just a stone’s throw away on the same campus sits the Betgari Mirbari Primary School.
By 2003, the portfolio expanded to include the Betgari Mir Shahe Alam Technical School and College. Its former principal Md A Alim confirmed that Shahe Alam was again both the donor and founder and ensured his wife’s name graced another building on site.
Yet, despite its 23-year history, the institution’s academic standing is shaky.
“It’s not currently MPO-listed,” Alim revealed. “It actually secured MPO status in 2022, only to have it revoked. Following the political shifts after 5 August 2024, a new application was filed.” Today, enrolment has dwindled to just about a hundred students.
Securing the state minister portfolio only supercharged his philanthropic vanity.
Shahe Alam recently established the Mokamtala Mir Shahe Alam-Sattar Talukder Mahabidyalaya at the new upazila headquarters, conveniently appointing his own personal assistant, Atiqur Rahman, as the college principal. Betgari Mir Labani Government Primary School and Betgari Mir Shahe Alam Madrasa and Orphanage also carry the state minister’s legacy.
When questioned about the minister’s relentless drive to plaster his family’s names across public and private spaces, his loyal PA-turned-principal was fiercely defensive, “He already addressed the union-naming controversy in parliament; that is his official stance. He has built several institutions, and he has every right to build them in his own name.”
The ego trip does not stop at academia. The state minister has rolled out a full family package, extending his naming spree into the commercial oil business.
For his sons, there is the Mir Simanta-Diganta Filling Station. For his wife and daughter, the Mir Laboni-Nusrat Filling Station. From education to energy, the message is clear: if Mir Shahe Alam is funding it, you will read about it.
‘Theoretical’ explanation of the naming UPs
The crowning achievement of the state minister’s ego empire lies in the newly drawn maps of Shibganj Upazila. Following a recent administrative split, four new unions were born. By a stunning twist of cosmic fate, the names chosen for them look remarkably like a family tree.
The minister’s ancestral home is known as ‘Mirbari’ – and, lo and behold, one union got the suffix Mirbari, Betgari Mirbari Union. The remaining three were named Simanta, Diganta, and Swarnagram. Coincidentally, the state minister’s two sons are named Mir Simanta and Mir Diganta.
When this “miraculous coincidence” caused an uproar in parliament, Mir Shahe Alam stood up to deliver a masterclass in geographical theory. He claimed “Simanta” (border) was chosen because the union sits on the upazila border, and “Diganta” (horizon) because it was far away. Any resemblance to his offspring, he insisted, was purely accidental.
His bulletproof logic? “Our children are named Mir Simanta and Mir Diganta. If I had any ulterior motives, I would have told the deputy commissioner to include ‘Mir’. But look, there is no ‘Mir’ on the map!”
Behind the curtain, however, lay classic bureaucratic magic. While the Local Government Division outlines a strict process of public hearings and revenue checks before a union is approved, the textbook flew out the window once the minister dropped a Demi-Official (DO) letter onto the pile.
Shibganj Upazila Nirbahi Officer Ziaur Rahman admitted that the entire restructuring was triggered by the minister’s letter, though he maintained that a committee chose the names based on public consensus.
But the facade crumbled when Bogura Deputy Commissioner Md Taufiqur Rahman let the real story slip, “By the time the proposal reached my desk, only one name was submitted per union.”
There was never a second alternative. The public could have any name they wanted as long as it belonged to the minister’s children.
The unwritten ‘secretary general’ of power
Mir Shahe Alam’s political trajectory is a masterclass in survival and influence.
Entering politics in 1997 as a union chairman under the Awami League, he swiftly pivoted when BNP took power in 2001, forging a close alliance with Tarique Rahman, whose paternal ancestors are from Bogura.
By 2009, with Awami League back in power, he remarkably secured the Shibganj Upazila chairmanship with BNP backing.
Though slapped with numerous criminal charges during the Awami League regime, alongside at least four cheque-bounce cases pending until the national elections, he was quickly acquitted of all major charges following the 2024 July uprising.
His loyalty to Tarique was cemented through multiple high-profile meetings during the leader’s exile in the UK.
Today, his grip on power is absolute. At a recent public function, Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed, in the presence of the prime minister, openly dubbed Shahe Alam the “most influential state minister.”
Within the LGRD ministry, his authority reportedly eclipses even the highest party ranks.
“Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir sir is only the head in name,” an anonymous ministry official revealed. “Shahe Alam sir does all the work. He decides postings, promotions, and transfers. Nothing happens without his blessing.”
This unchecked dominance extends directly to the lucrative project directors under the ministry.
Shahe Alam’s shadow operations have grown so suffocating that when Mirza Fakhrul recently hinted at retiring from politics, a top BNP insider confided that the secretary general’s frustration stemmed directly from this bitter, behind-the-scenes conflict over running the ministry.
In the corridors of power, Shahe Alam is not just a state minister, he is the unwritten boss.
Eldest son’s ‘Aladdin’s Lamp’
When a father holds ultimate influence, his children’s fortunes can change overnight. Take the state minister’s eldest son, Mir Shakrul Alam Simanta. Just a year after returning from his studies in London, Simanta was appointed Student Affairs Secretary of Shibganj Upazila BNP.
His meteoric rise did not stop there. On 8 June, he was appointed a director of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), though he resigned the very next day.
Soon after, he became vice president of the Bangladesh Flour Mill Owners Association. While the state minister’s election affidavit listed only two companies, Roma Auto Rice Mill and Ruposhi Rice and Pusthi Mills, with no mention of a flour mill, the association’s 22 April notification introduced Simanta as the “young entrepreneur of Rupashi Flour Mill.”
Furthermore, Simanta secured a contracting license under his father’s own ministry.
His company bagged the contract to construct an RCC road from Garibpur Mosque to Ganeshpur in Shibganj Municipality. A visible nameplate confirms the state minister himself inaugurated the project on 26 April.
When questioned, the minister’s PS, Atiqur Rahman, claimed the leaked photo was “photoshopped to defame the state minister,” adding, “I cannot say whether he [Simanta] has a contracting license. However, he is a businessman.”
Meanwhile, the younger son, Mir Saqlain Alam Diganta, is currently studying law in London.
Condemning this nepotism, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman told TIMES, “This is not only indecent, but also a conflict of interest-based, family-based, and power-abuse-based contracting, and a public exercise to obtain personal, party, and family benefits at the expense of the people… Which is a violation of the oath taken as a public representative.”
‘Everything is fine’ theory
State Minister Shahe Alam possesses a unique gift: if he refuses to see or admit something, it simply does not exist.
This became painfully clear when heavy April rains submerged Chattogram. On 28 April, responding to a parliamentary query, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman expressed deep regret to the citizens and promised a solution.
Yet, two days later, Shahe Alam stood up in parliament to flatly contradict his own prime minister, “The issue [waterlogging] is completely baseless, fabricated, and imaginary.
Propaganda has been carried out by broadcasting a picture from 2024. He [the Prime Minister] expressed his regret based on one of our MPs or news.”
The denial did not stop there. That same day, Shahe Alam reprimanded Chattogram Development Authority (CDA) Chairman Nurul Karim at a meeting, angrily accusing him: “You are planning and conspiring. You are against the government.”
The minister’s fury stemmed entirely from the CDA chief’s refusal to falsely declare that the city was not flooded.
He deployed the exact same tactic when public outrage erupted over a sacrificial cattle market illegally set up at Dhaka’s Uttara North Metro station.
Inspecting the site on 27 April, Shahe Alam confidently announced: “An attempt has been made to create confusion by spreading old videos on social media… But now the buying and selling of animals is going on inside the designated market.”
In his reality, the controversial market had never existed.
In the state minister’s eyes, the world remains as flawless and beautifully curated as his own family nameplates. Repeated attempts to contact both him and his son, Mir Shakrul Alam Simanta, for comment went unanswered, with texts left unread.
