BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday said the current Awami League government has failed to resolve the outstanding issues with India as it lacks public support.
"Bangladesh government has not been able to solve the common and outstanding issues that we have with India, including sharing of common rivers’ water and the killing of Bangladeshi citizens along the border, since it doesn’t have public support. That’s the big reason,” he said.
The BNP leader also said the government has so far failed to strongly strike a strong bargain with the neighbouring country for overcoming the problems as people are not with it.
He came up with the remarks while talking to reporters after paying homage to BNP founder Ziaur Rahman by placing a wreath together with the leaders of the newly formed partial committee of Jatiyatabadi Swechchasebak Dal.
BNP announced a five-member partial committee of its voluntary wing, Jatiyatabadi Swechchasebak Dal, making SM Zilani and Rajib Ahsan its president and the general secretary, respectively on Sunday last.
About Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to India, Fakhrul said every time she went to India giving people a lot of hope about singing Teesta and many other deals, but that has not happened so far.
He said Bangladesh was supposed to get $8 billion from India under the lines of credit, but the country has received a part of this credit. “There’s no further progress in this regard. These things depend on people's power. Had people supported this government, then every work would have already been done."
As journalists sought his comment on Sheik Hasina's current India tour, he said, "I say again, let her come back and see what she brings for the people of Bangladesh."
Earlier on Monday morning, Sheikh Hasina went to New Delhi on a four-day state visit at the invitation of her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.
The Prime Minister had bilateral talks with her Indian counterpart today at the Hyderabad House and the two countries signed seven MoUs demonstrating cooperation in a number of areas including water sharing of the Kushiyara River.
Fakhrul criticised the government for not giving any appropriate response to Myanmar for repeated violations of Bangladesh's sovereignty. “Since this regime has been in power without people’s mandate, it’s very difficult for it to ink agreements in the outside world and protect the interests of Bangladesh. We have observed this in the case of Myanmar.”
As his attention was drawn to criticism on social media for receiving the PM by a state minister at India's Palam Airport, Fakhrul declined to say anything about it "Because the previous statements of the foreign minister here and the statements of most of the ministers of the government have demonstrated that they would go (to India) no matter how they’re received and they wouldn’t have a big problem with that."
He said the Awami League government is a subservient regime and it is difficult for them to stay in power, even by using guns and pistols, without the support of their friends. “So, they would like to fortify it (friends’ support) somehow before the next election.”
The BNP leader said their party believes that the governments of the democratic countries of the world will play their proper role in establishing the main demand of the people of Bangladesh for a democratic government and a fair and credible election.
“We’ve been repeatedly saying that the people of Bangladesh are pro-democratic and they had democracy. But this Awami League government has snatched that democracy and every day and every moment they’re killing democracy, and people's rights and they’re killing the opposition. We do not believe that any democratic country will come in support of this type of government,” he observed.
Fakhrul also hoped that all the democratic countries will support the Bangladeshi people’s struggle for democracy.
Reiterating BNP’s position on the next election, he said a credible general election will not be possible in Bangladesh without a polls-time neutral government and a fresh impartial Election Commission.
“We do not accept the current Election Commission. We already said that this commission was completely illegal and unethical and any election will not be possible to hold through it,” Fakhrul said.
He also said their party’s only goal is to remove the “fascist and usurper” Awami League government and force it to hand over power to a neutral caretaker government by dissolving parliament.
END/TDM/MAS
