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Bangladesh Nationalist Party acting chairperson Tarique Rahman on Wednesday urged party leaders and activists to work for implementing BNP’s 31-point state reform proposal to counter conspirators, both at home and abroad.

‘The 31-point proposal must also be implemented to counter the conspirators, both at home and abroad, who do not want democracy to flourish in Bangladesh and who seek to prevent the political and economic success of its people,’ he said.

He came up with the remarks while addressing virtually a workshop titled ‘31-Point State Structure Reform Proposal and Public Engagement’, which was organised by the BNP in Narayanganj, Gazipur and Tangail on Wednesday.

Tarique also said that people’s rights to vote must be restored as part of the response to these plotters.

He urged BNP leaders and activists to respond to their oppressors by making the party’s 31-point state reform proposal a success, rather than resorting to reprisal and revenge.

He said, ‘If you want to respond to the injustice, oppression and suppression that has been done to you, you should not respond like them. If we do like them, there will be no difference between them and us.’

‘To give a response and take revenge, we must make our 31-point proposal a success,’ he said, urging party people to earn people’s trust.

Tarique recalled that over the past 17 years, many BNP leaders and activists were killed, made to disappear, repressed in various ways, arrested and imprisoned.

‘Thousands of our leaders and activists suffered both physically and financially. Their homes and businesses were attacked and damaged,’ he said.

BNP standing committee member Salahuddin Ahmed on Wednesday said that the chief adviser Muhammad Yunus’s recent speech on the national election timeframe failed to meet public expectations.

Salahuddin, while inaugurating a medical camp at Mohakhali’s Korail slum, said that the public had expected the chief adviser of the interim government to present a detailed roadmap with specific dates, timeframes and necessary reforms, but the expectation remained unmet.

‘Based on our analysis, these essential reforms should not take more than four to six months,’ he said, adding that the interim government’s primary responsibility was to ensure a free, fair and participatory election.

‘I would like to appeal to the government not to use any tactics on the road to democracy,’ he added.

BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Wednesday alleged that Indian prime minister Narendra Modi belittled Bangladesh’s independence, sovereignty, and freedom fighters by claiming that December 16, 1971, was India’s historic victory.

Rizvi, while addressing a programme at Shantinagar in the capital Dhaka, said that Modi belittled and ignored the independence of Bangladesh, its independent territory, the Liberation War and freedom fighters.

Noting that the brave people of Bangladesh fought and put up a resistance against the invading forces of Pakistan, he said, ‘You (India) played the role of a friend. So how can it be India’s Victory Day instead of Bangladesh’s Victory Day? That means they want to ignore our Liberation War.’

Rizvi also criticised India for backing Sheikh Hasina’s government to illegally stay in power, saying that no country in the world, except India, had supported Sheikh Hasina regime for the past 16 years.