Rubayat Khan Most political parties have released their election manifestos already, individually. If each of the parties were contesting elections on their own, it would have been easy to compare and contrast and eventually pick favourites. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these parties are riding in one of two, immense, wagons. So, with multiple manifestos within alliances, how will the AL-led or the BNP-led alliances choose their policies? Shouldn’t they have published joint manifestos to outline what their priorities will actually be if and when they go to power? In our obscenely bi-partisan political system, the smaller parties blend into the two colossal melting pots led by AL and BNP without the slightest change in the composition of the brew. But there are two major undercurrents — namely Jamaat-e-Islami and, to a lesser extent, Jatiya Party (Ershad) — that wield significant influence over the colours of our two major parties. So the questions effectively become – how will JP and Jamaat affect AL and BNP policies respectively? Unlike the little kid in that story, are we swallowing the proverbial pills along with the roshogollas? Will our disposition to support either the BNP or the AL come back to maul us? There are no easy answers to these questions. There could be overwhelmingly negative outcomes, if the BNP-led alliance government chooses once again to turn a blind eye to Islamist militancy even when bombs are going off, or if they allow the persecution of minorities like the Ahmadiyas. Or, perhaps, the Jamaat and the JP may have positive influences on their bigger alliance partners. Maybe JP will be able to lure AL into its commendable decentralization scheme outlined in its manifesto. The third possibility is the null – with no impact of Jamaat, JP or even the manifestos themselves! Perhaps the BNP and the AL will ignore its numerous promises and keep doing what they do best – partisanise the administration and constitutional bodies, and institutionalise corruption. But regardless of what those influences will be, we deserve to know. Before we stand in line to cast our ballots on election day, we need to be informed, as well as inform the people, on what exactly we are placing our bets on.