Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has come down hard on BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia for her party-backed candidates’ participation in the Upazila Parishad elections despite her avowed stance of not contesting any election under Awami League-led government.
At a discussion in Dhaka on Saturday, Hasina said, “She [Khaleda] has no shame. She doesn’t even know what to say and do. She had announced not to join the polls… No election under Awami League was her stance.”
“But she came to Upazila polls. She will join in everything,” the Prime Minister said.
She pointed out that candidates backed by BNP and its allies fared well in the first phase of the local government elections.
“You may not accept our government and any election under it. But the election under our government was held in a free and fair manner,” she added.
“She had said that the (Upazila Parisad) vote would not be free and fair, (but she) joined it. She does not believe in the Upazila system and so she had repealed it soon after coming to power in 1991. Now she accepts the system she had once repealed.”
The then Leader of the eighth Parliament and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia had said the Awami League would not get even 90 seats in the Parliamentary elections.
She had even said that Sheikh Hasina, who is now Prime Minister and Leader of the 10th Parliament, would not be able to become Leader of the Opposition if she goes overboard.
Reminding Khaleda of that statement, Awami League President Hasina said, “Now she has failed to be the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament for not joining the election in 2014. Her curse falls on herself. She should understand it.”
Advising the BNP chief not to go for any agitation, she said, “Don’t talk about agitation that kills people anymore….. She does not value human life.”
Mentioning BNP’s boycott of the parliamentary election, the Prime Minister said, “The election was held. She did not join it. But who will answer for the loss of human lives ?”
The BNP and its partners have been dubbing the government illegal, saying the Jan 5 election was voter-less.
Retaliating, Hasina said, “Ziaur Rahman had illegally grabbed power. The party that was founded by a power grabber is itself illegal. How can they dub others as illegal? They came into being illegally and so they see everything as illegal.”
“After becoming army chief, he became President by pointing arms at Mr Sayem (Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem). And then he had proclaimed in the television, ‘I have become President’.”
Hasina also claimed that the post of a deputy army chief was created just to solve Zia’s family problem.
“Bangabandhu brought him (Zia) to Dhaka from Comilla creating a post for him (Zia) in the army just to solve his (Zia’s) family problem. This had solved his family problem.”
She said, “Bangabandhu was killed while he (zia) was serving the army as its deputy chief. As deputy army chief, he has a duty. Colonel Faruk had said Ziaur Rahman was fully involved in the killing.”
Hasina highlighted many initiatives taken up by the government to spread Bangla across the world.
“The BNP chief has done nothing for Bangla. She loves Urdu. Her heart dances with joy whenever she hears the name of Pakistan.”
Source: bdnews24
