BNP will be taught about mass rallies from tomorrow: Obaidul Quader
Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader has said BNP will be taught what a mass rally is from tomorrow.
Obaidul Quader said this while speaking during a briefing at his residence on Friday.
Dhaka district Awami League conference will be held tomorrow, Saturday, at the former site of the trade fair, adjacent to Bangabandhu International Convention Centre. This conference would not be held in Dhaka city before. It is perceived that this gathering will be held in Dhaka this time in response to the series of mass rallies being held by BNP. Awami League aims to ensure massive attendance at this event.
In response of Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir's comment that the government is trembling after seeing BNP's three rallies, Obaidul Quader said, "Why should the government tremble? They aimed at having one million people at some rallies but couldn't even gather 100,000. In some places they aimed at 500,000 and didn't even get 50,000. That is the state of BNP's rallies."
Obaidul Quader threw challenges, saying, "Look at the thousands of people coming to Awami League's Dhaka city ward and thana conferences. These were shown in the newspapers and on TV."
Referring to his saying that "the game will be on," the Awami League general secretary said, "I said that the game will be on against those who want to play with the fate of 170 million people. The game will be against Hawa Bhaban, looting, money laundering. The game will be against corruption, electric poles with no electricity."
The Awami League general secretary went on to say, "The game will be on against those who created 10 million fake voters, against vote rigging and fake votes. The game will be against those opposed to the country's development, against those who do not believe in the spirit of the liberation war."
Referring to the assertion of BNP's secretary general that there will be no election without power being handed over to a neutral government, Obaidul Quader said, "What is the benchmark of neutrality to you all? You have proven that again and again when you were in power."
It was the BNP leader who once said that only a mad person or a child can be neutral, so do you want elections under a caretaker government run by mad people and children, asked Obaidul Quader. He said, blinded by their desperation for power, the BNP leaders might be wanting that.
The Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader said, there is constitutionally an election commission in the country under which the next election will be held in due time. The government will simply assist the election commission.
The election will not be held according to any person's or party's whims, said Obaidul Quader, adding that elections will be held in Bangladesh as these are held in any other democratic country.
The people want to know how BNP talks about reserves, claimed Obaidul Quader, asking, "Has the government swallowed the reserves or has it spent these on imports, development and the people's welfare? It was Fakhrul and the others who swallowed the reserves. Do you remember how little reserves they left behind? When the left power, there was even less than five billion."
Obaidul Quader said, "During BNP's rule, reserves were down to zero. Prime minister Sheikh Hasina's government took our reserves up to 48 billion dollars." He said, "Due to the global crisis, today our reserves have gone down from 48 billion to 36 billion. This crisis is not in Bangladesh alone, but even all the developed countries are reeling under this crisis." He said that the present reserves are enough for the government to import for five or six more months.
The Awami League general secretary said that Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has showered the transport owners and workers with advice regarding the transport strike. He said that the transport owners and workers have not forgotten when in 2013-14 BNP damaged hundreds of vehicles, hurled petrol bomb at vehicles and burnt transport workers to death, threatened the livelihood of the workers. They have not forgotten BNP's violence, setting fire to vehicles, their destructive politics.
Obaidul Quader said, transport owners and workers do not belong to any particular party. There are people from all parties among them.
He went on to say, addressing the BNP leaders, "The president of the transport owners organisation is of Awami League, the general secretary of BSD, and BNP's important leader Shimul Biswas is also a senior vice president of Bangladesh workers federation. Ask him why he is striking?"
The bridges minister Obaidul Quader said, "The owners association comprises people from all parties. There the president is from Jatiya Party, the general secretary is backed by Awami League, and there is representation from all other parties." He called upon BNP leaders to talk to them, saying, "Ask them why they are scared of you all, why they haven't forgotten the horrors of 2013-14. Ask them."