The information minister and joint General Secretary of Awami League Dr. Hasan Mahmud commented that the BNP, which has turned into a baton of individuals due to continuous aversion to elections and forced decisions, is on the edge of the abyss and will fall if it boycotts the next election.
The Minister opinioned so in contemporary context at the ’93rd birth anniversary meeting of Bangamata Begum Fazilatun Nesa Mujib’ organized by Bangabandhu Cultural Alliance at National Press Club on Topkhana Road in the capital on Friday afternoon.
He said, ‘BNP is such a party, if the party does not take part in parliamentary elections, upazila elections, it cannot even elect union councilors or city corporation councilors. I will ask their leaders and workers – what is stopping you from being Tariq Rahman’s baton by forming a party that cannot participate in any elections!’
The minister said, ‘As long as Tariq Rahman cannot be elect, no one from BNP will be able to elect union members – this is their policy now. But if the BNP boycotts the next election, they will understand that their leaders and workers have not boycotted and while picking the blanket, they will see that the entire blanket has been destroyed.
So I will say to BNP, they will benefit only if they walk on the path of democracy. And I will tell their senior leaders, how long will you follow the imposed decision, by doing this, BNP is on the edge of the abyss today, if it boycotts the next election, it will fall into the abyss.
Hasan Mahmud warned about BNP’s mass rally on this day. He said, “We will not give up if people are attacked, police is attacked, people’s property is destroyed from BNP’s mass rally.” We will build resistance with the people.
‘BNP did not gain by setting fire or complaining to foreigners’
The Minister of Information and Broadcasting said at this time, ‘BNP has made a lot of pleas to foreigners for the past few years. In the end, they found that foreigners had no support for their caretaker government and that nothing they wanted was happening. Now they started talking in different tones. Now they are saying that it doesn’t matter what India says, it doesn’t matter what the US or the EU says.’
As the reason for this, he said, ‘They have seen that the US Undersecretary Uzra Jaya and European Union representatives who came on a visit a few days ago did not say anything about any demand of BNP. For the same reason, BNP canceled the meeting with the election monitoring group of various countries including USA, UK, and Japan. Desperate BNP has realized that there is no benefit in running after foreigners.
Hasan Mahmud said, ‘This country belongs to the people of Bangladesh, not to anyone else. If they have somewhere to go, they have to go to the people. BNP did not gain anything by going to foreigners.’
From Sheikh Mujib to Father of the Nation, Bangamata was behind Bangabandhu:
Earlier, paying deep respect to Bangabandhu, his wife Bangamata and all their families, the Information Minister said, Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatun Nesa Mujib’s contribution to the transformation from Sheikh Mujib to Bangabandhu, from Bangabandhu to the Father of the Nation was extraordinary.
He said that Bangabandhu spent many times in prison in his political life. When he was out of prison, Bangamata took care of the family and when Bangabandhu was in prison, Bangamata took care of both the party and the family.
We can learn from the various writings and discussions of Bangabandhu’s daughter Sheikh Hasina that how her mother stood by her father at the turning points of history and took various important decisions, said Hasan.
The minister said that after the mass uprising of 1969, Ayub Khan was forced to release Bangabandhu and offered him to become the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Bangabandhu himself rejected the proposal and conveyed it to Bangamata over telephone from Rawalpindi. Bangamata also agreed and thanked Bangabandhu for rejecting the proposal.
Broadcasting Minister Hasan said, Bangabandhu did not covet power, did not want to be the prime minister, he went ahead on the path of independence, Bangamata stayed with him with his family. In the nine months of the liberation war in 1971 and even on the day of victory on December 16, Bangamata endured captivity by Pakistanis along with her daughter Sheikh Hasina, newborn child Joy, Sheikh Rehana, and Sheikh Russell.
After the victory in the Liberation War, on January 10, 1972, Bangabandhu first went to the people at Suhrawardy Udyan, (the then Race Course Maidan), not to his family.
The Awami League organizing secretary Sujit Roy Nandi, member of the national committee Advocate Balaram Poddar, former General Secretary of Dhaka Metropolitan South Shahe Alam Murad, Ekushey Medalist Swadhin Bangla Betarkendra vocalist Manoranjan Ghoshal and others addressed the meeting. At the end, prayers were offered for Bangabandhu, Bangamata, their families and the country and the people.
Asrarul Hasan, a member of the presidium of the Bangabandhu Cultural Alliance presided over the meeting while the event was conducted by the General Secretary Habibur Rahman.