Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Monday alerted the people about conspiracy against the country’s independence, sovereignty and economic emancipation, urging all to make collective efforts to march Bangladesh’s advancement further towards prosperity confronting all the hurdles.
“Let’s make collective efforts on the 54th Independence Day to further Bangladesh’s development and advancement overcoming all the ill tactics and conspiracies,” she said in a televised address to the nation on the eve of the Independence and National Day, 2024.
The speech was aired by different TV channels, radio stations and online platforms, including Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar simultaneously at 7:30 pm.
In her over 17-minute speech, the prime minister said in the last 15 years, her government has transformed Bangladesh into a country of “Rising Economy” by attaining unprecedented and visible development in the socio-economic sectors that include agriculture, health, education, industry, poverty alleviation, infrastructural development, women empowerment and decrease in the child and maternal mortality rates.
“So, once a poverty-ridden country, Bangladesh now emerges as a rising economy... Bangladesh has now become the country with the 35th largest economy (in the world),” she said.
Mentioning that Bangladesh has been branded as a role model of development on the global stage due to timely measures taken by the Awami League government, she hoped that the country will finally become a developing nation by 2026 as it has already fulfilled all the requirements for that.
The journey of Bangladesh towards prosperity in the last 15 years was not a bed of roses as there were both man-made and natural disasters as well as local and foreign conspiracies, she said.
Bangladesh’s economy faced difficulties time and again due to several devastating floods and cyclones, Covid-19 pandemic, Russia-Ukraine war, sanctions and counter sanctions and the recent Israeli attack on Gaza, she said.
The war and pandemic have contributed immensely to the hike in inflation that has been rattling the global economy that includes Bangladesh, she continued.
Sheikh Hasina said that the production and transportation of the essential goods have been facing difficulties that contributed to abnormal increases in prices of essentials globally.
Briefly describing the government measures to contain the price hike of essential commodities during the month of Ramadan, she said the government has stockpiled several goods such as sugar, chickpea, pulse, and edible oil alongside giving permission to import 50,000 tonnes of onion and almost the same amount of potatoes.
Apart from these, fish, meat, egg and milk are being sold at affordable prices from 25 points in the capital city from the beginning of the Ramadan for the marginalised people, she said.
The TCB (Trading Corporation of Bangladesh) has been selling rice, pulse, edible oil, sugar, and chickpea at cheaper prices among 10 million card holder families across the country, she said.
The prime minister further said her government has given special allocation of 100,628 tonnes of rice for 162,800 families ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr, adding that each of the families will get 10 kilograms of rice free of cost.
Referring to “mayhem of Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami” in 2013-14, 2016 and 2023 in which people were burned to death alongside torching down public and private properties in arson terrorism, she said the gruesome acts still haunt the people.
“We have been trying our best to expedite the country’s advancement after facing all the internal and international impediments,” she said.
The prime minister said they have made Bangladesh self-reliant in food production and given electricity at every house alongside decreasing the poverty rate to 18.7 per cent from 41.5 and hardcore poverty rate to 5.6 per cent from 25.1 per cent.
She continued that the Awami League government has built the Padma Bridge, Dhaka Metrorail, Elevated Expressway and Third Terminal of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport and introduced highways of four or more lanes connecting the divisional cities which have brought revolutionary changes in the communication system.
The prime minister alerted the people that the conspiracies against the country’s development and prosperity are to stop.
“This is undesired but true that the conspiracy to foil the country’s independence and sovereignty is to stop,” she said.
The conspirators, including the defeated forces of 1971 and killers of Father of the Nation and his family in 1975 and their accomplices, are still working to stop Bangladesh’s non-stop journey towards prosperity to take revenge for their defeat.
“They will launch an attack whenever they get a chance. Awami League is the only hurdle before them. The rise of the defeated forces is sure if they can destroy or make the Awami League weaker. So, kandari (the person who steers the ship) has to be aware,” she said.
The prime minister said her country follows the foreign policy - “Friendship to all, malice to none”, adopted by the Father of the Nation.
“We have no master, we have friends. So, the Bangalee nation never tolerates anyone’s eyes of wrath. If required, the Bangalee nation will defend its independence-sovereignty-honour by sacrificing blood,” she said.
The prime minister said that she has to face at least 19 armed attempts on her life and went to jail time and again since she returned to the country in 1981 after six years of forced exile to realise the rights to vote and rice.
“Bangladesh Awami League will never allow ruining democracy that has been earned through the blood of thousands,” she said.
The prime minister said they have stopped forever assuming power illegally by amending the constitution in line with the apex court verdict, she said.
“All the political parties and the commoners have to play the role of vanguards to protect democracy. You have to keep in mind that the constitution is the highest authority to protect and maintain democracy. Anything to be done bypassing the constitution is an attempt to undermine democracy,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina, also president of the Awami League, said her party always runs the state in accordance with the constitution.
“We’ve made parliament the centre point of all the activities of the state,” she stated.
The prime minister greeted the countrymen for keeping their trust in the Awami League through giving them the mandate for the fourth consecutive term and fifth in total to serve them.
“My target is to transform Bangladesh into a developed, prosperous smart country by 2041 by taking ahead further the development and prosperity we have made. Bangladesh will be a poverty-and hunger-free and non-communal Sonar Bangladesh as envisioned by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,” she said.