Staff Reporter:
Ensuring every citizen’s right to vote is an effective and powerful weapon for protecting all of their other rights, BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman has said.
“As long as every citizen of the country, irrespective of religion and caste, can’t elect people’s representatives by casting vote for their favourite candidates to establish a government accountable to the people, the safety and rights of no citizen are secure,” the BNP leader said at a programme of greetings exchange with the Hindu community people, marking the Janmashtami festival, at the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office in the capital on Friday.
“The biggest example of this was in the last 15 years of fascist rule… you have seen what has happened in the last 15 years. It happened because there was no rule of law in the whole country. Former chief justice SK Sinha had to suffer injustice during that period. During the dictatorship of the people now deposed, the court and the Aynaghar (secret prison) became the same,” he said.
Tarique Rahman said democracy is not yet safe in the country after the fall of the autocratic regime through a mass uprising.
“In such a situation, we must all be unitedly vigilant so that no evil forces can again disrupt the ultimate goal and success of the mass uprising,” he said.
The BNP acting chairman said if a neutral review is conducted over all the attacks on minorities or religious establishments in the country, it will be seen that not a single incident occurred directly for religious reasons rather the real reasons behind these were making narrow interests and ill-political gains by Awami League.
He said no investigation or trial of attack on minority communities was carried out during the last 15 years of the Sheikh Hasina-led fascist regime.
Tarique Rahman said there is no alternative to establishing the rule of law in the state and society to ensure the rights and security of every citizen, regardless of caste and religion, whether a minority or majority.
“We, the people of Bangladesh, became independent by fighting and standing Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and Christians together. Now we are talking about the second freedom… we have to protect it. Unitedly, we have to defeat those who are making plots here,” he added.
The BNP acting chairman called on the Hindu community to celebrate the festival of Durga Puja without fear. “Everyone has the right to get security.”
“This Bangladesh is yours, mine, all of ours. It is the principle of the BNP that every citizen of Bangladesh will enjoy equal rights in all fields. This is the politics of BNP,” he said.
The BNP leader also greeted the Hindu community marking the Durga Puja, the largest of their religious festivals.
Speaking at the programme, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said a monster-like dictator government has fallen in the face of the student-led mass uprising.
“There is no way to deny that there has been a deliberate conspiracy, a plot to sabotage this revolution, and sadly an attempt has been made to drag you into it,” he said addressing the Hindus.
The BNP leader further said a similar plot has also unravelled in the Chattogram Hill Tracts area.
“We must stop it. Let us move forward to the future to establish a Rainbow Nation in Bangladesh under the leadership of Tarique Rahman,” he added.
BNP Assistant Religious Affairs Secretary Amalendu Das Apu and Secretary General of Hindu, Buddhist, Christian Welfare Front Tapan Dey jointly conducted the felicitation ceremony.
The BNP standing committee members Khandkar Mosharraf Hossain, Abdul Moyeen Khan, Vice Chairman Nitai Roy Chowdhury, Chairperson’s Advisory Council Member Prof Sukomal Barua, General Secretary of Gano Forum Subrata Chowdhury, Chairman of Hindu Buddhist Christian Welfare Bijan Kanti Sarkar, Kamaksha Chand of Feni, Ajay Sengupta of Khagrachari, Uttam Ghosh of Savar, Sujana Jolly of Khulna, Sanjay Gupta of Barishal, retired TV producer Manoj Sen Gupta, Gaur Sinha, among others, also spoke at the programme.
