BNP’s forefront leaders are election-oriented: Hasan

The minister said these while talking to journalists at his official residence at Minto road in the capital. Referring to the resignation of Abdus Sattar Bhuiyan, the former adviser of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, from BNP and his participation in the Brahmanbaria-2 by-polls as an independent candidate, he said: “It is proved that many forefront leaders of BNP are election-oriented.”

While replying to a query, he said that the decision of BNP comes from beyond the sea and their ‘particular’ leader has no idea about the reality and situation of Bangladesh. He (‘particular’ leader) has been out of the country for 15-16 years, Hasan said, adding: “I personally think that resignation of six BNP MPs from the parliament was a very short-sighted decision of the party.” Mentioning that many BNP leaders think that the attempt to resist the 2014 elections was a great mistake, Dr Hasan Mahmud said that they should have joined the national polls in 2018 in full swing not partially.

“Even now the resignation of BNP’s six MPs was imposed on them as the forefront leaders of BNP think so,” he said, adding, “Such resignation was not good for BNP.” Referring to the Gaibandha by-election, he said, the Election Commission claimed that the Gaibandha by-election was successful.

“We also witnessed a free and fair election,” he said, adding that Awami League’s candidate won with a huge margin of votes and it was proved that if the election had not been postponed earlier, the AL candidate with the symbol of ‘Boat’ would have won with a huge margin of votes.

Referring to the statement of BNP leader Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain that “A portion of Awami League wants to establish a reign of terror to usurp state power,” Hasan said indeed BNP itself has established a reign of terror as their politics is based on terror. He said Awami League has formed the government with the mandate of the people and is running the country. As long as the people want, Awami League-led government will run the country, he said, adding: “We will not stay in power for a single day if the people do not want”.

He criticized the BNP as it always wants to come to power through the back door. Lauding Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for the completion of her government in power for four years, Dr Hasan Mahmud said the tenure of Awami League-led government is completing 14 consecutive years at the same time. “In the past years, there were many global crises including the Corona pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. Despite these, the worthy daughter of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman has been able to maintain the continued development and progress of the country,” he added.

Mentioning the tackle of the coronavirus pandemic by the government since the outbreak of this pandemic, he said the role of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was acclaimed by the international community for tackling the pandemic. Referring to a joint survey of Nikkei and Bloomberg, he said Bangladesh was the fifth in the world and the first in South Asia in dealing with the Corona pandemic.

The information minister said despite the global crises and price inflation, the premier has kept the price of goods in Bangladesh at a tolerable level in many cases compared to other countries. “Our inflation is lower than in Europe and many developed countries. In December, we received record amount of remittance while export earning also increased. Export earning has increased in the last few months as well,” he added. Accusing BNP of doing negative politics, Hasan said BNP and their allies spread various rumors against the government such as human sacrifices for constructing Padma Bridge and the COVID-19 vaccination.

When 132 countries of the world were unable to start Corona vaccination programme, Sheikh Hasina’s government launched the programme in the country, he added. “Later, they (BNP men) took the coronavirus vaccines secretly, while some of them received those publicly,” he continued.

Lashing out at the negative politics of BNP and its allies, he said if BNP and its allies did not do negative and rumour-mongering politics, the country would have progressed much further. AL joint general secretary congratulated to the pro-people leader Sheikh Hasina for taking the country forward by confronting the global crises, various conspiracies and all the negative aspects. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has given the nation two feathers of success, he said, adding that one is the Padma Bridge and another is the Metrorail.