Members from the National Citizens Party (NCP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami have started to call him “engineer”, not because of his academics but because several leaders from the NCP and Jamaat have claimed that Rahman has allegedly ‘engineered’ the election results.
The 13th parliamentary elections saw the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) bag 209 seats out of 297 after a period of tumultuous political vacuum. Now, the newly sworn-in Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman seems to be the recipient of an unexpected moniker.
Members from the National Citizens Party (NCP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami have started to call him “engineer”, not because of his academics but because several leaders from the NCP and Jamaat have claimed that Rahman has allegedly ‘engineered’ the election results.
It started with NCP leader Nasiruddin Patwary, who called Rahman an “engineer” on Facebook, after which social media picked it up. On February 14th, Patwary wrote, “Congratulations! Engineer Tarique Rahman. Congratulations on your success in the 13th batch of National Election Engineering.”
Social media users have started trolling Rahman, with a Facebook user, Amir Hossain Robin, writing, “London theke engineer pass”, a sarcastic dig at the prime minister, as he had been living in self-exile for 17 years. Another user Maksuda Akter, wrote, “The man who became an engineer without educational qualifications”.
Moreover, AI-generated images are also doing the rounds on the internet with Rahman in construction gear. A Facebook page posted the AI photo captioning, “The man. The myth. The legend. The engineer.”
Election Rigging Claims
The opposition parties NCP and Jamaat-e-Islami have claimed that there has been a case of election rigging. NCP Spokesperson Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain alleged at a press conference that they have “clear evidence of result tampering”.
“We are getting clear evidence of result tampering aimed at the 11-party alliance’s top candidates,” he said.
Meanwhile, Rahman has rejected allegations of electoral “engineering” and said that the only strategy he followed was to win over people. “Our engineering was to win the people over. Alhamdulillah, we have succeeded in that”, Rahman said after a post-election press conference.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Tarique Rahman was sworn in as Bangladesh’s prime minister on Tuesday, marking a decisive political shift in the South Asian nation after his party’s sweeping parliamentary election victory.
Rahman’s Educational Qualifications
Rahman’s academic qualification is Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC), which is equivalent to being a 12th-grade pass. Although he enrolled at the University of Dhaka to study law and later International Relations, he dropped out during his second year to pursure business aspirations.
