Even if it is not a historic election as proclaimed by the government, not the “best of the best”, and not in the mould of 2014, 2018 or 2024, people from all walks of life are waiting with cautious satisfaction for at least a fair, mid-range election. In their eyes and expressions flickers an intense longing—for an election and for an elected government. Public expectations are modest. Normal day-to-day movement, some improvement in law and order, and keeping the prices of essentials reasonably under control would be enough to satisfy most people.
The business community, meanwhile, is waiting for the stagnation in trade and investment to ease. All these groups believe that once an elected government comes to power, even if their expectations are not fulfilled overnight, at least an enabling environment will be created. Ordinary people feel the hardship, though they do not keep numerical or statistical records. The government, however, does have systematic data on public suffering.
Official statistics show that inflation rose again in December of the outgoing year compared to the previous month. Overall inflation stood at 8.29 per cent in November, rising further to 8.49 per cent in December—indicating a month-on-month increase. Many families do not have a precise calculation of how severely rising costs in housing, education and healthcare are affecting them. Yet they believe that such a situation would not persist under an elected, politically stable government.
Amid this waiting, a devastating new blade of extortion has descended. With the election approaching, extortion has taken on a new variant—beyond all imagination. There is no distinction between small, medium or large: pavement hawkers, roadside tea stall owners, public toilets—where are they not present? From small vendors to established businessmen and industrialists, even affluent families—no one is outside the reach of this extortion.
The ongoing race to portray businesspeople as villains has not stopped. Mob violence, framing people indiscriminately as criminals, entangling them in cases, imprisoning them, forcing them into exile or into hiding within the country, halting factory operations and shutting down businesses while taking perverse pleasure in it—all this continues unabated. It was hoped that once the election process gathered momentum, these abuses would begin to subside. That has not happened. Instead, fear and uncertainty have spread with renewed vigour. Economic slowdown, lack of investment, recruitment paralysis, high inflationary pressure, uncertainty in the banking sector, high interest rates on loans and the global downturn are not afflicting businesspeople alone; they are severely overwhelming workers, salaried employees and the general public.
Political uncertainty, law and order conditions, energy shortages and high inflation do not affect only one group. However, in scale and visibility, businesspeople are hit harder. This is why the yearning for an elected, political government is more pronounced among them, and their waiting has reached an intense level. The government possesses even more detailed data on the distress in trade and the economy. This is clearly reflected in the Planning Commission’s General Economics Division (GED) report titled Bangladesh State of the Economy 2025, which identifies weak private investment and industrial activity as major obstacles to growth. The National Board of Revenue (NBR) also has updated data in this regard. These government bodies largely act as data providers; the sufferers are the businesspeople themselves. Even so, they believe that once the election is held and an elected government assumes power, this bleak situation will begin to ease.
Political parties have also acknowledged the plight of businesspeople and investors, assuring that such conditions will not persist after the election. The business community has come to believe that even if change is not immediate, the context will gradually improve. Business activity will pick up, and pathways for new industrialisation and investment will become visible. Yet amid this belief and anticipation, being struck by the poisonous fangs of extortion ahead of the election was beyond their imagination. To escape extortionists, some have stopped coming to their offices altogether in recent days. They cannot even speak openly or lodge complaints. This form of extortion is particularly dangerous: the perpetrators do not consider it extortion, a cut, a tip or assistance—they see it as their due. Whether or not someone is an election candidate, they state bluntly: “Money is required.”
After roaming the extortion field under various guises since 5 August 2024, these groups have now become immensely powerful. They have descended in force, chests puffed out. Transport, pavements, markets, ferry ghats, scrap businesses, garbage dumps, public toilets—nothing is spared. And not covertly, but brazenly and with bravado. These political sycophants, using the identities of various parties, have positioned themselves to prey on small and large businesspeople and investors alike. The role of law enforcement agencies in this regard is also telling. To escape their grip, many businesspeople have switched off their mobile phones and gone into hiding. For some time now, several businesspeople and industrialists in the country have been living lives of voluntary disappearance or self-imposed exile. Even relatively solvent shopkeepers at the grassroots level and mid-level traders have been forced down this path, seeing no alternative. They are not lodging complaints anywhere, fearing that it would invite even greater danger.
For businesspeople already battered for a year and a half by mob violence, deteriorating law and order, and the ordeal of lawsuits and attacks, this is calamity upon calamity. For some, keeping their businesses alive has become nearly impossible. With the election drumbeat, they had begun returning to their offices with a sense of cautious optimism. But in the midst of hopeful anticipation for better days ahead, this wave of extortion has pushed them to a state of utter devastation—like beating the dead. Many victims lament that becoming prey to extortion has come to feel like fate. One businessman joked bitterly that those who fled to prison or abroad are, this time, the ones who are safe. It is the established, traditional businesspeople—those still courageously trying to keep their enterprises afloat despite everything—who are now in trouble.
They suffered continuously for 15–16 years during the previous Awami League government. After that government was ousted by the student–mass movement, they had hoped to be spared such persecution during the interim, non-political phase and in the run-up to an elected government. That they would be hit again in this way was not only unimaginable to them, but has also forced them to rethink many things.
Author: Journalist and columnist; Deputy Head of News, Banglavision
