Foreigners won’t talk about internal matters before polls, Shahriar hopes

State minister for foreign affairs Md Shahriar Alam hopes foreigners would not talk about Bangladesh’s internal affairs before the national election.

The state minister made this remark while addressing a seminar styled ‘Democracy and election: South Asian perspective’ held at the National Press Club on Sunday.

Indicating the foreign envoys, the state minister said, “There’s been so much discussions about what they do. Now I want to focus only on election. None can obstruct the election.”

Shahriar Alam said India is the biggest democracy in the world and the electoral process of the country is good and also drew a comparison between India’s democratic process and another country ‘that speaks of democracy, rule of law and human rights’.

Without mentioning the name of the country, Shahriar Alam said that country is much richer and developed than India but their election has many flaws.  

Conducted by National Press Club’s general secretary Shyamol Dutta, the seminar was addressed, among others, by Editors Guild president Mozammel Babu, University Grants Commission’s former chairman Abdul Mannan, DBC News’ chief editor Mohammad Manjurul Islam, India Press Club’s president Goutam Lahiri and Times Now’s consulting editor Sanjay Chowdhury.