Main opposition Jatiya Party chief HM Ershad yesterday asked the ruling party to not laugh at him or his party.
“Have you [Awami League] played your just role as opposition in the past… [I have heard] that the [members of] cabinet laugh at us [JaPa]. Please do not laugh at us. That would be injustice to democracy. Do not learn from bad examples in the past,” Ershad told the House while delivering his closing speech for the second session of the 10th parliament.
Ershad, who is also a special envoy to the prime minister, yesterday questioned the ruling Awami League’s past role as the opposition party.
His wife Rawshan Ershad, also the leader of the opposition in the House, was not present for the closing session.
He said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina could become immortal like her father Bangabandhu if she could ensure that people lived peacefully. For that, he said, she needed to eliminate lawlessness.
Terming the Election Commission spineless, Ershad said: “We do not want such an Election Commission. Please let the constitutional bodies work independently.”
Ershad also urged the government to make way for the student body elections at the public universities for the sake of developing more able leaders.
In the late 80s, student leaders played a key role in toppling the former military ruler.
At one point, Ershad read out one of his poems that highlighted the dreams of Bangabandhu.
Later, while delivering her own closing speech for the session, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina termed BNP chief Khaleda Zia as Ershad’s “sister-in-law” and said he had failed to impress Khaleda with his poems.
“His sister-in-law, whom he gave houses and car, threw him and everyone from his party into jail in return. You [Ershad] wrote so many poems; was not any of those good enough to melt her?” Hasina asked with a smile on her face.
Criticising the military rulers, Hasina said: “We have always wanted the democratic process to continue. But the military rulers gave birth to weapons, money, drug and loan defaulters. They created an upper class for the sake of cementing their regimes. There were 19 coups from 1995-1981. Hundreds of soldiers were killed in each of them. A total of 562 navy men were killed in just one of those coups.”
Hasina also said the ways BNP founder Ziaur Rahman and Ershad took over state power were similar.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
