Usurers up in arms to usurp politics, Hasina tells cultural activists

Dhaka, Feb 17 (bdnews24.com) -- Sheikh Hasina Saturday said there was no difference between the usurers and the bribe-mongers.

Her harsh words came amid possibilities that some leading small loan pioneer and civil society people were waiting in the wings to join politics, although she did not name anybody.

The Awami League chief labeled them as "upstarts".

"The upstarts and the black money holders have caused immense harm to the country. Politicians who represent the grassroots level people are not responsible in any way," Hasina said while she was exchanging views with a group of cultural activists representing the Bangalee Sangskriti Mancha at her Dhanmondi office.

She blasted some people for their hypocrisies, saying that they talk against politicians but are now head over heels to do politics.

"They are joining the politics, finally," Hasina said. "They on the one hand, have launched indiscriminate tirade against politicians and on the other want to be politicians themselves".

This is Hasina's first open statement since Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus branded all politicians corrupt recently and announced to form a new party.

"It really hurts us when we see politicians are criticised in a sweeping manner. Please call white, white and black, black," Hasina said.

"The usurers have not only failed to eradicate poverty but have also nurtured poverty," Hasina said, asking people to free the country from the clutches of the upstarts, the black-money holders and the terrorists.

Hasina said that this interim government was a result of their months-long street protests.

"I ask you (the government) to publish the names of people who have whitened their black money," she said.

"Masks will be removed if NBR releases the list of the black-money holders," she said.

The former prime minister criticised the BNP-led coalition government for the current situation. "Their unabated greed has pushed the country to such an uncertainty," she said.

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