The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Wednesday said that a strange Awami League-style democracy had been prevailing in the country.
Bangladesh’s Jatiya Sangsad is unique as there is no difference between the ruling and the opposition party, said BNP senior leader Nazrul Islam Khan said while addressing the Jatiyatabadi Tanti Dal’s 44th founding anniversary as the chief guest at the Jatiya Press Club.
‘It’s a strange kind of parliament where ruling party has 337 seats while the opposition party has 13 with the ruling Awami League’s mercy. Independent members of parliament are not different as they are AL members,’ he added.
Nazrul said, ‘We didn’t fight against Pakistan in 1971 for such type of democracy. Our democracy was buried in 1975 when Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League was formed. President Ziaur Rahman had restored democracy by empowering people and giving back their voting right.’
Later, in 1982 autocrat H M Earshed ruined our democracy and again it was brought back on right track by Khaleda Zia in 1991, he continued.
No political party except BNP has sacrificed much for restoring democracy in the country, Nazrul said, adding that their thousands of their leaders and activists have been in jail and Begum Zia and Tarique Rahman were convicted in ‘false’ cases.
The BNP leader said that nowadays the wavers were struggling for their existence. ‘Their achievements are being snatched by others. Our Tangail saree is no longer our product as its GI (Geographical Identification) recognition was snatched by neighbour India.’
Nazrul Islam asked the weavers community to get united and wage a movement for ousting the ‘dummy government’.
The programme was presided over by the Tanti Dal joint convener Golam Mawla Khan Bablu and moderated by member secretary Haji Mojibur Rahman and senior member Milon Islam Khan.
BNP chairperson’s advisory council Member Zainul Abedin Farroque, organizing secretary Abdus Salam Azad, information and research affairs secretary Riyaz Uddin Nasu, among others, spoke.
