Playgrounds once held by Awami League men are now under BNP control, says Nahid Islam

National Citizen Party (NCP) convener and opposition chief whip Nahid Islam has said that the playgrounds which were under the control of Awami League men during that party's rule have passed into BNP hands after the change of government. This is not just one party's problem, he said, but part of a long-standing political culture.

He made the remarks on Monday evening (November 2) while speaking as chief guest at the launch ceremony of the National Sports Alliance at the Krishibid Institution in Khamarbari, in the capital.

Nahid Islam said that to get out of this situation, social movements must be built at the local level and the occupied playgrounds must be recovered.

He said effective institutional structures have not developed in Bangladesh in various sectors, including political institutions, sports bodies and the administration, and that the crisis persists in running the state as well. That, he said, is why the need for reform came to the fore, and during the interim government an effort was made, within the scope available, to assign responsibilities to qualified people, change laws and make institutions effective.

Nahid Islam said a political party may have its own ideology, but when a person is in charge of an institution, they must rise above their party identity and behave institutionally; running an institution for party interests destroys its effectiveness. Partisanship is spreading again in various sectors, he said, and independent alternative spaces must be created in sports as well as in politics.

The opposition chief whip said that when he visits different areas, one of the most common demands from children, adolescents and parents is for playgrounds. The importance of sports for children's physical and mental development has grown, but many children cannot play for lack of grounds — even though land suitable for playgrounds exists in many areas, it cannot be used because of occupation and party influence.

Nahid Islam also stressed the role of sports in raising the country's international profile, saying Bangladesh's success in cricket is a major means of introducing the country on the world stage. Sports is not just entertainment, he said; it is an important part of the country's history, culture and social development, so alongside doing better in international sports including cricket, initiatives should be taken to revive lost traditional games.

He also answered whether the National Sports Alliance is an affiliate of the NCP. Nahid said the organisation has an ideological and policy relationship with the NCP, but it is not a body under the party; there is a difference between a political party's associate organisation and an affiliate, and the National Sports Alliance will work independently under its own leadership and decisions.

NCP senior joint member secretary Asif Mahmud Sajib Bhuiyan and leaders and activists of various levels were present at the ceremony.