BNP will fail again if tries to push govt: Information Minister

Information and broadcasting minister Hasan Mahmud addresses a rally Awami League’s north city unit organised at Shah Ali Eidgah ground at Mirpur, Dhaka, on 11 January 2023 marking the homecoming day of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur RahmanBSS

Information and broadcasting minister Hasan Mahmud on Wednesday said the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) will fail again like 10 December if it tries to knock down the government, reports news agency BSS.

“Please don’t try to push (the government). If BNP try to do so, then its legs will be broken as its waist was broken on 10 December,” he said, addressing a rally at Shah Ali Eidgah ground at Mirpur in the capital.

Awami League’s north city unit organised the rally marking the homecoming day of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the greatest Bangalee of all times.

The minister said Bangladesh is marching ahead indomitably under the dynamic leadership of Bangabandhu’s daughter prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

Bangladesh became 35th largest economy in the world after 14 years under the charismatic leadership of the prime minister from its 60th position just in 2009, he added.

We are on the street . . . we will not leave the streets and we will stay on the roads as the party (AL) was born on the street
Information minister Hasan Mahmud regarding BNP's mass processions on 16 Jan

Hasan Mahmud, also joint general secretary of ruling Awami League, said now Singapore and Malaysia are smaller economies than Bangladesh in terms of GDP (gross domestic product). But BNP leaders including Begum Zia and Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir don’t like the development and they want to topple the government, said Hasan.

He said BNP tried to push the government on 10 December. But Awami League is not the party which will be knocked down by anyone rather they will fall down and it was proved on 10 December, he added.

He said, “They have changed their tone and BNP leader Mirza Abbas today, Wednesday, said that they don’t want to topple the government. They can understand that their waists were broken on 10 December. And now, they (BNP) are saying that they want to topple the government through fair elections.”

Hasan further said BNP has declared a programme of holding mass processions on 16 January. “We are on the street . . . we will not leave the streets and we will stay on the roads as the party (AL) was born on the street. Besides, BNP was born in cantonment through conspiracies,” he added.

About Bangabandhu’s homecoming day, Hasan said, “Though we achieved independence on 16 December, 1971, the joy of the final victory of the Liberation War was fulfilled after the arrival of the great leader on 10 January in 1972.”

Awami League general secretary and road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader addressed the rally as the chief guest while AL presidium member and agriculture minister Abdur Razzak, AL relief secretary Aminul Islam Amin, state minister for industries Kamal Ahmed Majumder and freedom fighter Aga Khan Mintu, MP, addressed it special guests.

AL North city unit president Bazlul Rahman presided over the meeting.