BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman has said that if the country fails to control the evil activities of religious extremists and extremism, the extremist population and the defeated evil forces will once again build the grave of democracy in the country.
He made these comments at an Iftar Mahfil organized by BNP in honor of the political party at the Ladies Club in the capital on Wednesday. Top leaders of various political parties including Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Islami Andolan Bangladesh, Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis, and Jatiya Nagorik Party participated in it.
The party’s Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman joined the BNP’s Iftar Mahfil virtually from London as the chief guest. The Iftar turned into a gathering of political party leaders at Eskaton.
Addressing the interim government at the Iftar Mahfil, Tarique Rahman said that if the country fails to control the evil activities of religious extremists and extremism, the extremist population and the defeated evil forces will once again build the grave of democracy in the country. On the other hand, Bangladesh may face an image crisis in the democratic world. To uphold the non-communal democratic character of the country, extremism and religious extremist evil forces must be resisted. In addition, the democratic rule of law must be strengthened in Bangladesh by bringing the fugitive mafia gangs that committed genocide to justice at any cost.
This is the future political arrangement of the forces for democracy, including the BNP.
Addressing politicians, he said, “We may not all have the same thoughts and ideas. We have different political thoughts, different party-opinions-philosophies. However, despite our differences in opinion, we all sit together. This is our Bangladesh. This is a unique reflection of the religious, social, and cultural values of the present era.” However, unfortunately, the exploitation of the fascist regime of the last decade and a half has not only destroyed the country’s education system, politics, and economy, but also the religious, social, and cultural values of the present era of Bangladesh. Socialism has recently destroyed the bond of brotherhood.
The BNP acting chairman said, if religious, social harmony and values among the people of a state and society are destroyed, then the social system becomes degraded, fragile, cruel and inhuman. A fragile state and social system have become a fertile ground for the development of extremism and extreme methods. In recent times, women and child abuse and rape have suddenly increased at an alarming rate in the country like in the past. Half of the country’s population is women. It is impossible to move the country forward by leaving women insecure. There is a need to think deeply about whether the security of our mothers, sisters and daughters has been in crisis due to the government, administration and law enforcement agencies being more focused on creating new political settlements or any other work.
He said, in the continuation of the long movement and struggle to establish democracy, human rights and the right of the people to vote, the mafia government fled in the bloody uprising of the brave people in July-August. Seven months have passed since the fall of the mafia government. It may not be long before Bangladesh, which has been devastated by a decade and a half of mafia rule, is repaired. However, if the outline of the interim government’s activities or action plan in the coming days were clearer and more specific before the people, all doubts in the minds of the people would have been eliminated.
Tarique Rahman further said that while it is true that the mafia government did not fall just because of holding a national election, it is even more true that the mafia government’s brutal fall was due to not holding a fair and impartial election. Therefore, there is no room to consider an election as a matter of whether or not a political party comes to power. In every national election, the people get the opportunity to vote for their preferred candidate. An opportunity is created for the formation of a people’s representative parliament and government by elected people’s representatives. Above all, through every successful and practical election, the agreement of the democratic rights of citizens with the state and government, and the people’s ownership relationship with the renewed state are deepened. In order to establish people’s ownership in the state, pro-democracy political parties including BNP are vocal about holding national elections. But some advisors to the interim government, and even one or two political parties, have been heard speaking in a slightly different tone regarding the national elections recently. We believe that if there is an attempt to unnecessarily waste time by making secondary issues the main focus in the name of a new political settlement without showing the promise of public expectations, it will send the wrong message to the public, create a crisis of public trust in the impartiality of the interim government and the government’s activities, and the path to establishing democracy may become fraught with danger.
The BNP acting chairman said that every political party, including the BNP, believes that both reforms and elections are necessary. Therefore, there is no need to put reforms and elections face to face. The way to strengthen and implement the political policy system of the state depends only on reforms. The political policy management of the state is strengthened on daily democratic practices. In the democratic political systems of the world, politicians ultimately run the state and the government. Attempts to distrust the judgment of the people will ultimately weaken and question the democratic rule system.
He said, the term of government in a state is fixed, but the political policy or political management of the country is long-term, long-term. Therefore, the political process should be strong and sustainable.
