The caretaker government (the civilian face of the army, which is actually calling the shots) has a mandate to carry out the sweeping reforms and clean-up of the political system that would make free and fair elections possible. And to show they mean business, their anti-corruption drive has been netting big fish every day. The country's power-and-money elite now wait in trepidation for the midnight knock. Like the one that came for Tarique Rehman, Begum Khaleda Zia's son, believed to be the real power behind the throne. Over the past five years of the BNP government's rule, he and his network of cronies and goons are alleged to have made several hundreds of crores through extortion, bribes and cuts on every deal. "Tarique makes Sanjay Gandhi look like an innocent babe," commented a Dhaka editor.
The anti-corruption raids have also revealed a peculiar penchant among venal Bangladeshi politicians for exotic birds and animals. One ex- minister's house yielded a menagerie of emus, golden pheasants, rare deer and pigeons. Another raid unearthed a large cache of "relief biscuits" that had been siphoned off to feed a collection of prize horses.
