An investigative report on the profession of members of the 12th National Parliament has recently been published in Prothom Alo. The report presents a comparative picture of the ratio of businessmen and lawyers as MPs in Parliament between 1973 and 2024. Here industrialists are included in the broader sense of businessmen. The results of elections held in 1986, 1988 and 1996 have not been included in the report. The remaining nine elections have been taken into account.
The report said that in the 1973 election the proportion of businessmen and lawyers was 18 and 31 percent respectively. In 2024 the ratio is 67 and 8 percent. A total of 199 businessmen have been selected in 2024. In contrast, the proportion of businessmen, politicians and agriculturalists was 24, 26 and 14 respectively. As a result, the report is logically titled ‘Policy Making of the State in the Capture of Businessmen’. The report says that the dominance of businessmen in the National Parliament is gradually marginalizing politicians in politics. According to the report, the presence of businessmen in Parliament has reached an absolute majority since 2001. Their proportions in 2001, 2008, 2014, 2018 and 2024 are 58 per cent, 57 per cent, 59 per cent, 62 per cent and 67 per cent respectively.
The dominance of businessmen in our state has not happened suddenly. Politicians played a role in controlling political parties and nominations for elections and in many cases they are still at the top. Therefore, it would not be irrelevant to say that politicians are gradually bringing businessmen into Parliament. As a result, businessmen play a key role in state policy making.