Giving a cold-shoulder to BNP’s demand for restoring the caretaker government system, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said the opposition leader at last found ‘mad and child’ for the caretaker government.
“She (Khaleda) used to say nobody is neutral except mad and child. But, now she wants a non-party caretaker government to oversee the next election. Now she has now turned mad and child,” Hasina said while delivering her introductory speech in the ongoing views-exchange meeting with grassroots leaders at her official residence Ganobhaban.
The meeting was organised to select party candidates for the next general election.
Awami League leaders from different municipalities and upazilas of Sylhet, Khulna, Mymensingh, Patuakhali, Noakhali and Narayanganj districts attended the meeting.
AL Advisory Council Member Suranjit Sengupta, Presidium Members Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Abdul Latif Siddiqui, Kazi Zafarullah and Satish Chandra Roy, Joint General Secretary Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif and Food Minister Dr Abdur Razzak were, among others, present at the meeting.
Claiming that the opposition leader not cordial to resolve the crisis, the Prime Minister said that when she had offered Khaleda for holding dialogue the opposition leader threw a 48-hour ultimatum keeping her feet on the Hefazat-e-Islam’s shoulder to topple the government.
She criticised Khaleda Zia and BNP for spreading false information about the operation of the law enforcement agencies on the night of May 5 at Motijheel to drive away Hefajat activists.
“How will they (BNP-Jamaat-Hefajat) save Islam through false information? I’ll request the countrymen to remain alert,” she said.
Hasina also questioned in which direction the opposition parties wanted to push the country by spreading false propaganda.
She said that the Awami League always puts the country on the path of light, but BNP always pushes it towards darkness.
The Prime Minister mentioned that when the BNP was in power, the country had been pushed backwards in all sectors, including power generation and literacy rate.
She said Bangladesh has been recognised as a role model in global forums despite global economic recession due to massive development that took place in the last four and a half years of the present government.
“We’re now seeking votes for the Awami League and if we are re-elected, the trend of the development would continue and people would remain in peace,” she said.
The Prime Minister expressed her firm determination to build Bangladesh as a developed and prosperous country by 2021. “We have the firm belief that we’ll be able to build a prosperous Bangladesh by ensuring economic emancipation of the people,” she said.
Hasina said she does politics for people and her only concern is to ensure the welfare of people. “I don’t do politics for myself, I’m doing politics to serve people,” she added.
The Prime Minister said although central leaders make mistakes, the grassroots leaders and workers never do that. “And due to their strong stance, the last caretaker government was forced to declare general election.”
In this context, she directed the party leaders to stand beside people in time of their need, project the successes of the government and create mass awareness against conspiracy against the party.
Sheikh Hasina also underscored the need for creating mass awareness on propaganda of BNP-Jamaat and Hefazat against Awami League using the religion.
She said the aim of her politics is to bring smile to the faces of the general people while BNP-Jamaat alliance are creating anarchy through destroying property like buses and trains, and killing people.
In this regard, Hasina mentioned the vandalism of Jamaat-Shibir and Hefajat with the patronage of BNP on May 5 saying they burnt hundreds of copies of the holy Quran and vandalised banks, offices and shops near the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque.
She also alleged that a group of women activists of BNP, Jamaat and Hefajat motivated the female voters not to vote for Awami League candidates during the recently held city corporation elections saying that namaj, azan and fasting would be banned in the country if voted the Awami League candidates.
Sheikh Hasina said due to some pragmatic steps of her government, poverty has been reduced to 26 percent, some 5 crore people have been graduated to middle-income group and the per capita income of people has increased to US$ 1,044.
Highlighting various successes of the government, the Prime Minister said the power generation has increased to 6,675 MW alongside ensuring food safety, reached healthcare services to the doorsteps of common people through community clinics, free distribution of textbooks up to secondary level, and implementation of 96 percent of the Annual Development Programme.
Source: UNBConnect