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Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader today said BNP is anxious, considering its impending debacle in the upcoming general election.
Quader, also Awami League General Secretary, was addressing a briefing at his residence in the capital.
The minister said BNP’s politics has turned rusty, while its so called tide of support has become an ebb.
Quader came up with the remark after BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam earlier said that BNP’s tide of public support has shaken the government to the core.
“Mirza Fakhrul Islam regularly comes up with new statements and the extent of his verbosity is often beyond imagination. All this eloquence may provide him with some self-satisfaction, while also staying safe from the criticism of his fellow party-men. However, the countrymen know that there is hardly any touch of reality in what he says,” the minister said.
Stressing that there has not been much public support for BNP in the previous elections in last 13 years, Quader said this scenario has prompted the party to opt for not participating in the electoral race, abandon the streets, and limit themselves to mass media and social media only.
He warned BNP leaders against “threatening Sheikh Hasina’s government and the Awami League,” adding that everyone knows they are just trying to “catch fish in murky water”.
“Awami League does not shake in fear, it moves ahead overcoming challenges and obstacles under Sheikh Hasina’s leadership with Bangabandhu’s political ideology,” Quader also said.
He also stressed that the caretaker government system was an interim system which cannot go on in the long run and hence was abolished by highest court of the country.
“When a country’s democracy moves forward, faith in the government and electoral system starts to return among public. The Election Commission is a constitutional body, the government has no power over it,” Quader also said.
Pointing finger at Fakhrul, the AL general secretary said, “Despite being elected, why did you not join the parliament as a lawmaker? Was that democratic? It is you who has been playing with people’s voting rights.”
“Like every other democratic nation in the world, Bangladesh will also have its general election as per its constitutional norms,” he added.