Tarique, you are an idiot: Tofail

A furious Tofail Ahmed has bashed BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman for claiming that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was the first ‘illegal prime minister’ of Bangladesh.

The senior Awami League leader called Tarique an ‘idiot’ in Parliament on Thursday.

Addressing Tarique, Commerce Minister Tofail, who was Bangabandhu’s political secretary, said, “You idiot, (you) didn’t receive any education. Was your father an elected representative?”

“Your father was always going out of breath calling us ‘sir’,” he said about Tarique’s father Ziaur Rahman, the BNP’s founder.

Zia and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s elder son at a programme in London on Apr 8 said Bangabandhu was the first ‘unlawful prime minister’.

Tarique’s remarks came less than two weeks after he made the startling claim that Zia was Bangladesh’s first president.

Tofail had also reacted irately in Parliament at the time.

File Photo

Tarique, who is accused in several cases including the one filed over grenade attack on an Awami League rally on Aug 21, 2004, is currently in London.

Tofail on Thursday also urged the prime minister and law minister for pushing to end the grenade attack case trial as early as possible.

The ruling party’s Advisory Council member was a witness to many incidents as a close aide to Bangabandhu since the 1960s.

He asked, “Did we see Ziaur Rahman on March 25? Was he seen during the elections in 1970? Our properties were seized and we were implicated in cases. What did he face?”

The senior politician also cited an incident which took place nearly one and a half months before Aug 15, 1975, the day Bangabandhu and most of his family members were assassinated.

“He (Zia) had begged Bangabandhu to not make him an ambassador to a foreign country.”

The former student leader also suggested Tarique to read books on Bangladesh’s Liberation War written by foreign writers as he is currently abroad.

Quoting from an interview of Gonoforum President Kamal Hossain published in weekly 'Shaptahik' in 2010, Tarique on Apr 8 said that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had returned to an independent Bangladesh with a Pakistani passport.

Tofail responded, “There is a limit to impudence. Bangabandhu returned as the first President of Bangladesh.”

He also criticised the ‘extensive’ media coverage that Tarique’s remarks received.

Before Tofail, Health Minister Mohammad Nasim asked BNP chief Khaleda to restrain her son.

Nasim said in Parliament, “Stop this boy. He is making more foolish statements with every passing day. This is wrong… he’ll be brought back to the country and tried if you (Khaleda) don’t stop him.”

He also reminded her that legal steps were taken against those who had slandered India’s Mahatma Gandhi, Turkey’s Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and China’s Mao Zedong.

The Awami League Presidium member said, “This is unacceptable that (he) won’t acknowledge the father of the nation, the constitution. A sedition case can be filed. Tough legal steps should be taken against him.”

Railway Minister Md Mazibul Hoque also expressed frustration. Both Khaleda and her son were illiterate, he said.

He also dubbed Tarique as an ‘agent’ of ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency.

Several other ruling party MPs also harshly criticised Tarique for his controversial remarks.