Affidavits of ministers, MPs resemble folk tale of Aladdin’s lamp: Rizvi

Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, senior joint secretary general of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), has castigated the rampant corruption of Awami League leaders and observed that the affidavits of assets submitted by ministers and lawmakers resemble the folk tale of Aladdin’s lamp. 

“When we go through the affidavits of their (Awami League) ministers, lawmakers, and dummy-beneficiary independent candidates for the one-party sham election, it seems like reading the folk tale of Aladdin’s lamp,” he said in a virtual press briefing on Wednesday. 

Rizvi alleged that the ministers, lawmakers, and other ruling party leaders who formed the government by rigging the election in the night have amassed a mountain of wealth. They became excessively rich from zero, so did their wives, children and relatives. 

General businesses suffer losses, but the ‘fascist politicians’ of Awami League never experience any losses, he alleged. 

Regarding the affidavits, he said the people are perplexed seeing the details of the candidates’ belongings. Their assets increased by manifold, roughly ranging from 200 times to 700 times, throughout the last five years. 

Rizvi also observed that the ministers and parliamentarians who once pretended as pioneers of austerity and epitomes of honesty have been unmasked in public through the affidavits. They actually set their places on the mountain of money. 

“A minister who noted an annual income within thousands of taka in the affidavit 10 years ago now holds millions of taka. All the people know that the affidavits brought a little of their actual wealth to light. There is no clear data about the black money, laundered money, second homes, and assets amassed abroad,” he alleged. 

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has recently accused the BNP and its allies of plotting a famine in the country. Rizvi expressed utter surprise at the allegation and said, “What a ridiculous satire that the BNP will cause a famine in the country next March." 

Terming Awami League as a factory of thieves, the BNP leader said all the ruling party leaders, from top to bottom, developed a haven for corruption, looting, and anarchy throughout the previous one and a half decades.