Md Tarek Rahman, member secretary of the Amjanatar Dal, says he started a mango and honey business after failing to get a government job. He said the business not only supports his family but also pays for his politics. "I enjoy this life of mine; I rely on Allah," he said.

He made the remarks in a Facebook status on Sunday (15 February), writing about the recent election and his own struggles in life.

In the status, Tarek Rahman wrote: "I am Tarek. By profession I was an IT businessman. My parents would not let me run that business; they wanted me to have a government job. From there I kept trying for government jobs and kept failing, despite sitting viva after viva. One day everyone will remember that there was an 84 per cent quota in teacher recruitment, a 40 per cent ward or family quota in the railways, and quotas in first and second class posts."

He went on: "Disappointed again and again personally, I took up the cause of quota reform to break free of this system. Although we fought for quota reform, many took it to the level of hostility towards freedom fighters. Sheikh Hasina's government, too, kept calling the movement a movement of razakars. We proposed a 15 per cent quota in total, keeping some for the children of heroic freedom fighters, some for women, and for people with disabilities and our less advanced friends from the hills."

Saying their fight was for justice, Tarek wrote that from there the quota was abolished altogether, that Sheikh Hasina's stubbornness did great harm, and that the whole quota system collapsed. He wrote that he still believes there must be district-based allocations to help lagging districts move forward. He said he has been to Kurigram, Nilphamari and Lalmonirhat many times, where people live below the poverty line and must be helped forward; even if they are not, they have a right to recruitment from their region in proportion to its population. Allocations for less advanced areas and groups must be kept through a scientific and modern arrangement of quotas, he wrote.

He wrote that they never wanted the women's quota in primary teacher recruitment abolished entirely, and that talented sisters from villages should have some priority. "But should that quota be 60 per cent for women and 20 per cent for wards? And tell me, where one sector had a 60 per cent women's quota, was it right to cut it to 0 per cent at one stroke? Justice was not established through the movement; that chance was not given. All quotas were abolished in anger and resentment to escape the movement."

Recalling his earlier recruitment exams, Tarek wrote that after the 2018 quota movement he sat a viva at Bakhrabad Gas company and was not appointed. He twice sat the viva for sub-inspector (SI) recruitment and was dropped after three rounds of verification. He cannot remember how many exams he was rejected from at the last moment, he wrote. He said he was seriously attacked while trying to stop cheating in a Krishi Bank written exam, and that Bangladesh Bank security held him for a full two hours and tortured him when he tried to stop cheating in a Bangladesh Bank recruitment exam. He wrote that he forced those exams to be held again.

Tarek Rahman wrote that with all this activism he never got the chance to enter a job, and that to escape hunger and poverty he then started a mango business. "We have felt in our bones what hunger is," he wrote. He clung to many businesses like straws, he wrote, but was not allowed to stand up straight. He had a shop at Palashi, which was vandalised twice. He did business at the Agargaon Paka Market for a long time, and his shop was razed to the ground, even using people from the administration, he wrote.

The Amjanatar Dal member secretary wrote that for these reasons selling mangoes online became the centre of his virtual business: mangoes in summer and honey in winter, together making up his mango and honey business. "I have no regrets about anything in my life. My great wish was that if I got a salary of around 40,000, I would somehow get by. Alhamdulillah, the mango and honey business not only supports my family but also pays for my politics."

Referring to the election result, he wrote: "Two days ago I flopped in the election. You know, neither I nor my family felt bad at all. Allah did not consider me fit for that place; I did not do well. Leadership comes from Allah. Since 2018 I have led wherever Allah has found me fit. Perhaps I am not fit for parliament, so I did not get there."

He ended: "I enjoy this life of mine; I rely on Allah."

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.