| Moni Swapan Dewan | |
| Native Name Lang: | ccp |
| Office: | Deputy Minister of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs |
| Primeminister: | Khaleda Zia |
| Term Start: | 10 October 2001 |
| Term End: | 29 October 2006 |
| Successor: | Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury |
| Predecessor: | Post created |
| Office1: | Member of Parliament |
| Constituency1: | Rangamati |
| Predecessor1: | Dipankar Talukdar[1] |
| Successor1: | Dipankar Talukdar[2] |
| Party: | Bangladesh Nationalist Party |
| Birth Date: | 1954 5, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Rangamati, East Bengal, Pakistan |
| Term Start1: | 1 October 2001 |
| Term End1: | 29 October 2006 |
| Nationality: | Bangladeshi |
| Residence: | Rangamati |
Moni Swapan Dewan (born 18 May 1954) alias Major Rajesh is a Bangladesh Nationalist Party politician, ethnic Chakma, and a former member of parliament from the Chittagong Hill Tracts.[3] [4] He is also the former deputy minister for Hill Tracts Affairs.[5]
He started his career as a guerilla leader for the Shanti Bahini, the armed wing of the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti.
Moni Swapan was a member of the Shanti Bahini during the Chittagong Hill Tracts conflict and was known as Major Rajesh. He is accused of committing a massacre of settler Bengalis in the Rangamati district in 1984.[6] [7] Dewan denies the charges.
Dewan was elected to parliament from Rangamati constituency as a candidate of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party beating the former member of parliament Dipankar Talukder of the Awami League.[8] [9]
Dewan was appointed the deputy minister of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs in the 2001 to 2006 Bangladesh Nationalist Party government.[10] In 2003, he threatened to resign from the government alleging he was being ignored, there was corruption, and issues in the Chittagong Hill Tracts were not being resolved.[11] In 2004, the government restricted the usage of ministry funds by him to 25 percent of the allocated fund.[12] He called for the recognition of ethnic minority in the constitution of Bangladesh in 2006.[13] He tried to introduce bus services in his constituency but failed due to opposition from the Rangamati District Auto-rickshaw Sramik Union.[14] He inaugurated a solar power plant in Rangamati in 2006.[15] As member of parliament he received a plot of land in Dhaka from RAJUK.[16]
In November 2006, Dewan left the Bangladesh Nationalist Party to join the Liberal Democratic Party.[17]