Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League

Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League
Founded	June 1975
Dissolved	August 1975
Merger of	Awami League and the Krishak Sramik Party
Headquarters	Dhaka, Bangladesh
Ideology	Bengali nationalism, Socialism
Politics of Bangladesh Political parties Elections

The Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League (BAKSAL) (Bengali: বাংলাদেশ কৃষক শ্রমিক আওয়ামী লীগ Bangladesh Krishôk Sromik Aoami Lig) was a political amalgamation of the Awami League with the Krishak Sramik Party that supported President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in governing Bangladesh. It was established in June 1975; other political parties were outlawed at the time.^[1] BAKSAL dissolved after Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's assassination on August 15, 1975, and the KSP and League once again became independent political parties. The party advocated state socialism. BAKSAL was dissolved and the part of the 5th amendment to the Bangladeshi constitution that made the party the sole legal party was scrapped after Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was killed.

History

BAKSAL was the only legally recognized party of Bangladesh founded on 7 June 1975 following the Fourth Amendment to the constitution of Bangladesh. Under the Amendment (Article 117A), Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was entrusted with the responsibility of forming a new national party which would try, on the one hand, to tackle the social, political and economic destabilization consequent upon the war of liberation, and on the other, reconstruct the nation from the debris of the war. Thus Sheikh Mujib formed a national party which was named Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League. The rules of BAKSAL required all other political parties, any political dissent and associations be made illegal and make Bangladesh essentially a one-party-rule similar to communist countries. Elaborating on the various aspects, scopes and prospects of BAKSAL, Sheikh Mujib characterized it as a 'second revolution'. In seeking national unity, the Fourth Amendment provided that no person could continue to remain a member of parliament unless he joined the national party before a time fixed by the President. BAKSAL, the new national party, was scheduled to replace officially the nation's other political organizations, whether those political parties agreed or not, and associations on 1 September 1975. Many restrictive regulations coming from the BAKSAL included the promulgation of the Newspaper Ordinance (June 1975;Annulment of Declaration) under which the declarations of all but four state owned newspapers were annulled. The Fourth Amendment was a direct attack on the press freedom which allowed only four newspapers (Dainik Bangla, Bangladesh Observer, Ittefaq & Bangladesh Times - these four newspapers were, in fact, owned and managed by the State) to continue their publication and banned the rest of the press and newspaper industries. It brought the whole news media completely under the absolute control of the government. Organizationally, President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the BAKSAL chairman, appointed for the national party a fifteen-member executive committee, a 115-member central committee, and five front organisations, namely, Jatiya Krishak League, Jatiya Sramik League, Jatiya Mahila League, Jatiya Juba League and Jatiya Chhatra League. All members of the executive committee and central committee were to enjoy the status of ministers. BAKSAL was also designed to overhaul the administrative system of the country in order to make it people-oriented.

The Executive Committee

List of the Central Committee

References

See also

• Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
• Awami League