Emotion within

The smile Tarique Rahman wore on his face since he reached the country, ending more than 17 years of exile in London, offered no idea to anyone of the emotions that drove him and what he really felt on the day behind his composed exterior.

It might be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for him, but there were no dramatic gestures, no visible display of superfluous feelings from him. Instead, his calm expression conveyed a man carrying the weight of memory, struggle and expectation with restraint.

It is needless to say that when he finally returned, it was not merely a political homecoming; rather, it was an emotional reckoning, shaped by loss, endurance, and an unbroken connection with Bangladesh’s turbulent history.

His Facebook post, mentioning his entry into the Bangladesh skies after 6,314 days, was just a gentle reminder of this.

Apart from this, as he took his shoes and socks off to feel the touch of the soil of his motherland barefoot after so many years and stood with a handful of the country’s soil in his hands, he couldn’t hide his own style of nurturing emotion deep inside.

Another instance of emotional recognition can be found in his decision to travel from the Dhaka airport to his Gulshan residence via Evercare Hospital.

He could easily have picked his newly purchased bulletproof Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, yet he chose to pass the way in a bus with BNP standing committee members and leaders who were with him during thick and thin. Probably he wanted to show them the outcome of their long years of struggle.

For Tarique, departure meant leaving behind not just a homeland, but a family legacy deeply intertwined with the nation’s democratic aspirations. The absence grew heavier with time, particularly as personal tragedies unfolded.

The deaths of his younger brother Arafat Rahman Koko and the later illness of his mother, former prime minister Khaleda Zia, whose political and personal battles he could only witness at a distance, certainly engulfed his heart with a feeling of deep agony.

But in his speech at the reception, he uttered not a single word about his own struggle. Instead, he just recalled how the people and the leaders and activists of his party endured the inhuman torture and repression over the years.

Finally, he clarified what prompted him to attend the rally first instead of preferring a visit to the hospital to see his ailing mother. He wanted to express his gratitude to the ordinary people of Bangladesh for whose sake his mother sacrificed her life and through whom he could return to the country at last.

For many ordinary supporters, his return symbolised continuity in a political culture often marked by abrupt endings. For others, it reopened debates about re-establishing dynastic politics. Yet even amid disagreement, there was a shared recognition that this was a significant moment, one shaped as much by emotion as by politics.

Tarique Rahman’s homecoming did not erase the years lost to exile. Nor did it resolve the country’s political divisions overnight. What it did offer was a rare pause, a chance to reflect on how absence can redefine belonging, and how endurance, over time, restructures leadership.