BNP sees two sides of movements on anti-quota, pension

Despite terming the ongoing two movements of university teachers and students “logical”, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir sees another aspect of the movements.

“We see these movements in two ways. Firstly, these movements are being created to divert the attention of people from the main problems of the country. This is one side,” Mirza Fakhrul said Monday.

The de facto opposition secretary general, however, considers the movements of teachers and students as logical.

“We support the demand of the students. There is no reason to say this is irrational,” he added.

Mirza Fakhrul was speaking to the media to brief about the health situation of the party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, at its Gulshan office.

The prime minister dubbed the anti-quota movement irrational. The issue was settled back in 2018. Why has the court been brought forth over the issue now? This was asked to the BNP secretary general.

In reply, Mirza Fakhrul posed a question whether this was an attempt to divert people’s attention from actual problems in the country.

Extending support to the anti-quota protestors, Mirza Fakhrul said, “This is utterly irrational that you would retain 56 per cent quota after 50 years (of independence).”

This is harming the country, remarked the BNP leader.

At the same time, he termed the movement of teachers against the pension scheme “completely logical”.

When asked whether BNP had instigated the movements or not, Mirza Fakhrul said, “We are not accustomed to these types of movements at all. The teachers and students have been waging these. Why would we instigate this? But we will call a spade a spade. People mobilise for their demands, this has been inspiring us.”

A journalist asked the BNP leader that they have come to know that the main reason for the prime minister’s visit to China is to get a loan from the country to mitigate the forex reserve crisis.

In reply, Mirza Fakhrul said, “The biggest crisis with this government is that all of them are corrupt. Corruption gets prominence everywhere, even in planning of the economy and a budget. In this case, we are falling in the debt trap. Due to falling in that trap, they have been trying to take out a loan to repay another loan. That is how things are going on.”

“Who does this? Those who cannot run things properly,” the BNP leader remarked.