National Citizen Party (NCP) Member Secretary Akhter Hossen MP has accused the ruling BNP of taking a contradictory stance on the referendum, saying the party is now refusing to accept the verdict after the “Yes” side won.
“BNP’s two-faced position has already been exposed before the people, as they reject the referendum that reflects the people’s verdict and the country’s reform agenda,” he said while speaking at a discussion at the NCP central office in Banglamotor on Tuesday evening.
The event was organised by the party’s Religion and Harmony Cell to mark 14 years since the Ramu attacks.
“We organised a referendum. ‘Yes’ won in that referendum. They had a reluctant position regarding that referendum,” Akhter said
Referring to the BNP high command and the prime minister, he said, “He had said, what is the need for a referendum? A fair price for potatoes is more necessary. Getting jobs is more necessary. There is no need to spend so much money unnecessarily behind a referendum.”
Akhter said BNP later participated in the referendum and campaigned for “Yes”, but was now refusing to accept its verdict.
“Now we are hearing again that through the Constitution Amendment Committee they have formed, they will organise another referendum. They want such a referendum where the desired reforms of the country will not happen; rather, the way BNP wants to run the state will be reflected there,” he said.
Akhter also criticised the current constitutional amendment process, saying several parties had participated in the earlier Consensus Commission discussions.
“We completed the discussions of a Consensus Commission. But they do not like the Consensus Commission discussions. Because although they dominated there, they could not always remain in the deciding role. There were many other parties there,” he said.
“But now they are forming another Consensus Commission in their own way, where they are the moderator, they are the decision-maker, the proposer, and everything will happen through them. And ultimately no democratic reform of Bangladesh will be achieved.”
He said NCP would not participate in the parliamentary committee on constitutional amendments.
“If the constitutional issue has to be resolved, it has to be resolved through the formation of a Constitution Reform Council,” he said.
Turning to law and order, Akhter expressed concern over security ahead of Durga Puja and other religious festivals.
“The law-and-order situation in Bangladesh has now reached rock bottom,” he said.“The person in charge of the home ministry has performed extremely poorly in his own area of responsibility. Yet he has either been entrusted with, or taken upon himself, the additional responsibility of safeguarding the constitution,” Akhter added.
Speaking at the same event, NCP Spokesperson Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain also expressed concern over the law-and-order situation ahead of Durga Puja, saying failure to ensure justice in cases such as the Ramu attacks had contributed to repeated incidents.
