BNP not moving away from its one-point movement

BNP will continue with it movement even after the election. According to sources, the party has decided to step up its one-point demand for the removal of the government after the election is over. Accordingly, the party will declare new programmes on Tuesday, without any break in the movement. The 48-hour hartal (general strike) called today, Sunday, centering the Jatiya Sangsad election, will end in the morning tomorrow, Monday.

BNP leaders say that their movement will continue until the fall of the government and the establishment of democracy and voting rights. The party’s policymakers have agreed that there can be no pause on the movement and the programmes. However, the programmes to be taken up in the new scenario after the election have not been decided upon as yet. Speaking to BNP leaders over the past two days it has been learnt that the leaders at the policymaking level in the party are preparing for a long-term movement against the present government. They are determining the trend of the next movement.

BNP’s standing committee member Abdul Moyeen Khan, speaking to Prothom Alo on Saturday night, said that that the programmes to be taken up after the election will be revealed after one day. BNP is in a struggle to restore people’s democratic rights through a peaceful movement along with the people. BNP will continue in its legitimate movement on the streets until this demand is achieved.

According to BNP, at this moment 27,000 of its leaders and activists, including the party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, are in prison. Added to this are court convictions. So far 1,294 leaders and activists of the party have been sentenced to various terms of imprisonment in 84 different cases.

Sources day that in the coming days, along with the one-point demand, demands will also be raised for the release of the thousands of incarcerated BNP leaders and activists including Khaleda Zia and the party’s secretary general. The parties who are with BNP in a simultaneous movement will also join in the movement for the removal of the government. The leaders of these parties are mulling over the strategies for the coming movement and programmes. They believe that the government literally has no public support whatsoever. The government, on one hand, relies on the state machinery, and on the other hand remains in power with the influence of the neighbouring country. It is with the full support and backing of these two forces that they are carrying out a ‘one-sided’ election, an election in which everyone is of Awami League or its supporting forces.

A leader of Ganatantra Mancha, an alliance affiliated with the simultaneous movement, told Prothom Alo, “We have never seen before how the entire state machinery is at one with a single party or government. It is the people who must bring about a change to this situation. We believe that power is never permanent.”

Several leaders who are a part of the movement and are boycotting the elections, have said that it is not just the opposition that is boycotting these polls. Voters of the ruling party too have lost interest in the election because they already know which persons are to win in each seat.

The question now being asked is, what will the opposition do after the election, all the strategies of its movement having failed so far? In a video message to the people last night, senior leader of Ganatantra Mancha and president of Nagorik Oikya, Mahmudur Rahman Manna, said after 7 January passes, the programmes will not come to a halt. Say ‘no’ to this government, he said, adding “join our programme to get back your rights to vote, food and clothes. Join the people’s march to fight. We will win today or tomorrow. It won’t be much longer. Keep faith in yourself and in Allah.”