Dhaka, July 21 (Just News): Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday asked those who oppose Awami League if they want to bring the BNP-Jamaat alliance back to power.
At the reception accorded to her by the ruling Awami League at Suhrawardy Udyan, she also criticised all those who said there is no democracy in the country.
“It’s we who restored democracy and we introduced transparent ballot box and voters roll with photographs. Democracy is at the hands of the people,” said Sheikh Hasina, also president of the Awami League.
She allegorically said the anti-Awami League elements should not try to stop the ‘boat’, the election symbol of the incumbents.
“Why do you want to stop the boat? Don’t you need to board a boat when there is the month of Shrabon (when Bangladesh experiences rainfall and flooding)?” she told the grand rally.
She went on to say: "Do you want to bring back Razakars to power? This kind of attitude (to stop boat) is of those who do not believe in the country's independence."
The AL chief emphatically mentioned that that the people of Bangladesh had got their right to speak their mother language and gained independence by voting for the boat,”
Refuting the allegations that there is no democracy in the country, the prime minister said, “We conducted more than six thousand local body elections in the last 10 years where people chose their representatives.”
Sheikh Hasina also claimed that her government managed to retain democracy through the 2014 elections, boycotted by the BNP and other opposition parties. “Some tried to overthrow a democratic government in 2015,” she added.
All major opposition parties including the BNP refrained from contesting the one-sided polls in 2014, demanding elections under a neutral caretaker government.
That election was not either supported by most of the countries which are now demanding inclusive, free, fair, and credible elections as Bangladesh is set to go to polls later this year.
The prime minister did not say anything about the upcoming national elections, in her more-than-an-hour-long speech.
She, however, gave a long list of her government’s attainments and expressed determination to observe the country’s golden jubilee in 2021 and 100th birth anniversary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 2020.
She also boasted of her government’s achievements such as trial of war criminals, beginning commissioning of the nuclear power plant in Rooppur, launching Bangabandhu satellite and various development projects and transforming the country into a 'digital Bangladesh'.
“Bangladesh has regained its honorable position at the global stage for massive economic development during the Awami League period,” she claimed.
Hasina also expressed her hope to make Bangladesh hunger-and-poverty-free within 2021 and turn it into the ‘Switzerland of the east’ within 2041.
Furtehrmore, Hasina vowed to work for the people of Bangladesh as long as she is alive, saying, “I am not afraid of death. I don’t to want die before my death.”
She said materialising the dream of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is the only motto of her politics.
“I don’t need anything except a hunger-and-poverty-free Bangladesh. It’s my only wish,” she said adding, “I will consider myself as successful when I would be able to realise those dreams.”
At the very beginning of her speech, prime minister termed herself a servant of the people and said, “I don’t need any such reception. I only think what kind of service I could give to the people,”
Bangladesh Awami League arranged the rally to accord a mass reception to the prime minister for various developments including Bangladesh’s eligibility to graduate from a least developed country (LDC) to a developing one, successful launching of Bangabandhu Satellite-I, her winning of Global Women's Leadership Award and her receiving of DLit degree from Kazi Nazrul University of India.
AL general secretary Obaidul Quader handed over the crest to Sheikh Hasina while the party's presidium member Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury presided over the rally.
(Justnews/ys/2320hr)
