Sheikh Hasina has urged her arch political rival Khaleda Zia to stop complaining to the visiting foreign guests.
Published : 27 Jun 2014, 10:48 PM
The prime minister’s call came on Friday after the BNP chief reportedly complained about the state of democracy in Bangladesh while meeting Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in the morning at Dhaka’s Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel.
Hasina said, “(She is now) crying and begging to foreign masters after failing to get people’s support. The Awami League does not beg foreign masters.”
“Empowered by people’s power, the Awami League will take the country forward.”
She was addressing a rally organised at Dhaka’s Suhrawardy Udyan to mark the ruling party’s 65th founding anniversary.
“We understand the pain of those who are talking gibberish. It was a wrong political decision (by Khaleda) to not take part in the election. You were unable to thwart the polls... now (you are) making conspiracies,” Hasina said referring to the BNP’s decision to boycott the Jan 5 general election.
The Awami League came to power for a second consecutive term through the Jan 5 general elections amid boycott by the then main opposition and its allies.
The Awami League president, urging Khaleda to stop ‘complaining’ to foreigners, said, “Please stop killing people and defaming the country by whining before others.”
The parliamentary polls were crucial to strengthen democracy and its progress in Bangladesh, Hasina said.
She said her government started work to build the Padma Multipurpose Bridge with own resources as announced. “We won’t bow down to anybody.”
At a recent rally, Khaleda had demanded investigations into the ‘deposited’ money by Bangladeshis in the Swiss Bank.
She had alleged that during the Awami League government’s term those who had plundered money from the share market, Padma bridge project and quick rental power plant projects had siphoned off the cash to Swiss Bank.
Hasina shot back, “Investigations will find that Khaleda Zia’s money is also deposited in the Swiss Bank.”
She said the government received the accounts of the money kept in the Swiss Bank and had already taken measures to find out the people who deposited that and bring the money back.
Khaleda at the same rally had questioned Hasina’s activities during the time when former President and BNP’s founder Ziaur Rahman was killed.
Khaleda’s husband Zia, who had usurped power by clamping martial law after a few political changes since the 1975 assassination, died in 1981 in a failed military coup.
Responding to her political foe, the prime minister said, “After all this time, Zia’s wife is now alleging that we killed him. Why would we kill him? What if I ask Begum Zia, where was she? What was she doing?”
Hasina also asked why Khaleda took 10 years to hold HM Ershad, who came to power following a coup in 1982, responsible for Zia’s assassination.
“Zia died in 1981. Khaleda Zia in 1990 claimed Ershad was Zia’s killer. ’81 to ’90? Took that long to remember? Why didn’t it occur (to you) before?”