12.7.13

Will the Labour Party select Tulip Siddiq for the Hampstead and Kilburn parliamentary seat?

This weekend, the Hampstead and Kilburn Labour Party are seeking a replacement to contest the marginal parliamentary seat soon to be vacated by Glenda Jackson. There are some legitimate questions that deserve answers regarding one of the candidates for the ticket.

Cllr Tulip Siddiq of Camden has no doubt many talents which have been exercised in the public interest. These I do not contest. Earlier today I came across an article in the North London Ham & High publication in which she reacts to an e-mail circulated concerning her and her family's dealings with the violent politics of Bangladesh and Vladmir Putin.

Clearly I am not important enough to have been sent the email, but I can imagine the picture attached because I remember being puzzled in January at the sight of Prime Minster Hasina of Bangladesh running off to Moscow with a large family retinue to sign a loan deal for arms worth $1 billion, as well as a controversial nuclear power agreement. The relationship between Sheikh Rehana, Cllr Tulip's mother, and the vile Awami League politics in the UK is common knowledge amongst deshis.

It is relevant and pertinent to ask Cllr Siddiq what her stance is on the issue of the Awami League's violence and nepotism. This is because she comes from a Bangladeshi background, as do a number of other people in Britain. It also shines a light on how she would view the same issue in the context of UK politics.

The Ham & High erroneously makes the following statement,
The email, which features a photograph of her alongside Russian president Vladimir Putin taken during a visit to see her family in Bangladesh, has been reported to Camden Council’s solicitor by councillors.
Kremlin website picture from Moscow Meeting on 15th January 2013
Picture with Cllr Tulip (far left) with PM Hasina and Vladmir Putin in the same attire.
It appears that both of the pictures above were taken at the same time. This photographic supports the view that Cllr Tulip was part of the delegation to Moscow. Putin has not been to Dhaka.

Russian power politics and gangsters are scarey as hell, but from the little I have gleaned, its a lucrative arms deal for merchants of death, who at the Bangladesh tax payer's expense can make money arming security forces to kill Bangladeshi citizens.

Nuclear power for Bangladesh at this moment in time is a stupid and dangerous idea, and an expensive non answer to the electricity shortage. Voice for Justice has articulated this clearly of late.


Readers of this blog will probably be aware that the Bangladesh Government's recent massacre of unarmed protesters on May 6th really ticked me off [Odhikar Fact Finding Report]. The Government of Bangladesh, and its support network are increasingly violent towards those who who oppose them.

It is in the public interest to know Cllr Siddiq's stance on the state brutality perpetrated Hasina's government.

We have no choice as to whom we are related, but we have a choice in whether to endorse and support their actions.

Labour party members should bear this aspect of the candidate in mind when making their final selection.

9 comments:

hajjandumrah said...

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asikha said...

It is best that British politicians have no links to Deshi politics, don't want the Tower Hamlets politics proliferating the Brit-Bangla political sphere.

Trees Planet said...

I don't know it is great news for Bangladesh or not. I know and believe Hasan and her family has left no root in Bangladesh. Trees Planet

Iqbal said...

While I am in agreement that we should keep the corrupt Deshi dynastic politics out of British politics, I must say that this is a petty and politically motivated attack.

It doesn't take a genius to see that had Tulip Siddiqi been related to a Jamaat I Islami fundamentalist (or even a BNP aligned candidate), the blogger would be supporting the candidate in a partisan manner. Very poor.

Fugstar said...

if they were from a gangster family and had been to putin for arms i would ask the same.

thankyou for your visitation.

Iqbal said...

Yes, but the Mujib dynasty isn't the only political family mired in corruption in Bangladesh.

Hand on heart in this Holy Ramadan month, if your idol Dilwar Hussain Syedi's son was standing as a candidate in Highgate & Kilburn, would you be airing this masty and speculative 'tar with a brush' type of article or hailing your candidate in your extravagant and ott style?

Your justified criticism of Bangladeshi/South Asian/Third world 'gangster family' politics falls flat on it's face when criticism throughout your blog is only directed viscerally at one side of the Bangladeshi party political setup.

Fugstar said...

Late Mujib's surviving family is a dangerous one and the most powerful family in Bangladesh. Political elites look after themselves and we see how this generation exploit family advantage while feebly mouthing that 'they did it all themselves'.

The PSCs uncle is responsible fo restructureing the whole of the Bangladesh armed forces, and stands accused of running a death squad by a sri lankan news agency. It is known that nothing happens in the UK Awami League without her mothers say so.

Sayedis not an idol of mine in terms of religion or politics. I think he is innocent of the charges brought against him as detailes in the bergman coverage. this is a pretty standard view.

Did Tulip have to go to see Putin? Who paid for that? How much does she know and perpetuate?

you might look at coverage from 5-7 years ago on bnp times to qualify your whiteous indignation sonny, and have a read of the kamarazaman critique of JI.

not very sharp bhai. are you faisal gazi?

Iqbal said...

Fug: 'Sayedis not an idol of mine in terms of religion or politics'.


Fug on Sayeedi: 'Delwar Hussain Sayeedi is a political threat to the Awami League. He can motivate a crowd of people like none of their leaders. In fact the post-harvest waaz audience really misses him. He sports probably the reddest mendhi beard in the Ummah'.

Forgive me, but your above description on your Economist article sounds like a hagiographical autobiography made by a groupie idol worshipper. Not much room for objective Especially for a politician of a minor political party operating in a foreign country (you are based in the UK, right)?

My apologies if you can show me similar (cringeworthy) gushing and uncritical description of Sheikh Mujib or Shaikh Hasina. If not, my criticism does tend to stand, doesn't it?

ps. Are you going to disable/amend the comments section again now to avoid any further home truths being bought to your notice?

pps. Who is Faisal Gazi?

Iqbal said...

One of the main problems with Bangladeshi and third world politics is that there is too much focus on personalities and dynasties and not enough on detailed discussion of policy differences.

You and your blog suffer from this problem as much as anybody else.