THE defeat of independent candidate Ashraful Alam, popularly known as Hero Alam, in recent by-elections by a small margin to a candidate of the ruling alliance and subsequent debates have exposed the classed prejudice of political leaders and a section of the media and intelligentsia. Alam, a content creator and popular social media personality from an ordinary working class background, was the only formidable candidate who earned the candidacy without the support of the ruling or any established party. The remark of the roads and highway minister, also the general secretary of the ruling Awami League, on Alam’s election result that opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party backed him to demean the parliament implies that anyone belonging to the class that Alam represents is not worthy of the parliament. The remark is a denial of history as many political leaders who played a significant role in political struggles of Bangladesh came from the same class as Alam’s. The assumption that a lawmaker from the working class may desecrate the parliament expresses the ruling party’s ideological bias against the working class and it evades the principles of equality enshrined in the constitution.

Alam’s struggle for a place in electoral politics has been a struggle against such an ideologically-rooted class bias. In 2018, Alam’s nomination for the candidacy to the Bogura 4 constituency was rejected by the Election Commission on flimsy grounds that he challenged in the High Court and obtained a directive in his favour. A section of the media and intelligentsia has always shared the class bias of the ruling political, business and cultural elite but remained rather silent in other similar cases. The prospect of a working class social media influencer in the parliament is questioned on grounds that he does not have the educational qualification, political maturity and cultural etiquette to occupy a seat in the parliament, but keeping to the same ideological logic, the candidacy of a cricketer or cultural personality from the institutionally educated background can be questioned. The ruling elite appear ethically and culturally undisturbed by the presence of known money launderers and corrupt individuals in the electoral and parliamentary politics. When an AL parliament member was accused of acting like a mafia boss, demanding taxes from Bangladeshi migrant workerss in Kuwait, the ruling party lost moral grounds to express concern about the sanctity of the current parliament.

The Awami League and a section of the media and intelligentsia who appeared concerned about the sanctity of the parliament must abandon their class bias and revisit the liberation war history to see a large majority of frontline freedom fighters belonged to the peasant and urban poor class that Alam represents.  The political aspiration demonstrated in Alam’s journey towards prominence is, perhaps, a faint pro-people voice lost in contemporary electoral politics and suggestive of public grievances against mainstream political parties, especially the ruling alliance.