Ashraf terms JSD men hypocrites

Ruling Bangladesh Awami League's general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam on Monday described as 100 per cent hypocrites the advocates and proponents of the ideology of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD), a party which once pledged to establish scientific socialism in the country.

Ashraf, also the public administration minister, came up with critical views of the JSD, now a partner in the AL-led 14-party grand alliance, while addressing a conference of the AL's student wing.

“After the birth of Bangladesh, a faction of Chhatra League took a whimsical decision and started advocating scientific socialism. Its leaders and followers destroyed the country. They formed a new party named JSD,” he said.

President of a faction of JSD Hanasul Haque Inu is a minister in the AL-led present government.

"They (adherents of JSD) tried to make controversial the liberation war which is a glorious part of our history," Syed Ashrar told a workshop in the two-day extended meeting of the Bangladesh Chhatra League at the Teacher-Student Centre (TSC) of Dhaka University.

Recalling some of the controversial steps taken by JSD, the AL general secretary accused its leaders of setting the stage for the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

He expressed his conviction that Bangladesh would have been a very different country by this time, had Bangabandhu not been killed.

Dwelling on the current state of JSD, Ashraf said, “They were once quite reactionary but now they are merely a B team for the Awami League.”
Earlier, Chhatra League leaders criticised some members of parliament from their constituencies.

Some also brought forth allegations that some MPs made money out of the process of choosing the party's nominees in the just-concluded Union Parishad elections.