Bangladesh Nationalist Party standing committee member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy on Sunday urged the interim government to announce the specific timeframe for the next general election.
The BNP leader made the demand while addressing a discussion organised by the Jatiyatabadi Prochar Dal at the National Press Club in Dhaka to mark the International Day for Disaster Reduction.
鈥楶eople staged movement in the past 16 years demanding a fair election. 90 per cent of people will participate in the election if that is held now,鈥� Gayeshwar said.
Acknowledging that the students had played important roles in all the movements in the country, the BNP leader said that it would be wrong to try to push students to confront the political parties.
鈥業t is not right to consider politicians to be stupid and selfish. It is not right to hate them. We (politicians) have contributions [to the movement and the country]. You [interim government] have the dignity and wisdom. But, the implementation [of the wisdom] is always done by the politicians and the labours. The implementation and the thinking are not the same,鈥� he said.
鈥榊ou [government] can create 鈥渁 kingdom of heaven鈥� in your thoughts. But, when you will try to implement it, you will see the difficulties. If you fail, the nation will fail. If you fail, the harvest of our movement for 16 years will fail. We want your success. We are giving full support for that,鈥� he said.
Urging the government not to create divisions between students and political parties, Gayeshwar said, 鈥業f discrimination is created under the guise of anti-discrimination, it is not possible to tell in advance who will pay for it.鈥�
He said that necessary reforms for holding fair elections should be done by issuing an ordinance by the president.
After that, he added, the political parties would be reformed through parliament on the basis of consensus.
鈥楬ow many days will you need to hold the election? Make it clear to the people,鈥� he said and wanted to know the reasons for which the government was not saying anything about the time of the election.
Regarding the cases against BNP leaders and activists, he said, 鈥楾he nation was angry over the cases lodged against the chief adviser. But, we still have to go to the courts every day. Why is this (cases against BNP leaders and activists) not
considered? If we can be sympathised, and speak out against false cases lodged against you (Professor Yunus), why are the false cases against us continuing even after your taking charge [as the chief adviser to the interim government],鈥�
Presided over by Jatiyatabadi Prochar Dal president Mahfuz Kabir Mukta, BNP chairperson鈥檚 adviser Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal, BNP joint secretary general Abdus Salam Azad and volunteer affairs secretary Mir Sarafat Ali Safu, among others, also spoke.
