Sit for talks or face consequences, warns BNP

The government will face “dire consequences” if it does not respond to the BNP’s call for a dialogue over a neutral caretaker government’s supervision in the next national polls, the party has warned.

Addressing the media on Saturday, party’s Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said: “The BNP has been and will continue to call for talks to ensure an acceptable election participated by all parties for the sake of peace, stability and democratic politics.

“We’ll hit the streets if our dialogue call is ignored,” he warned.

It was the BNP that declined to sit for talks before the Jan 5 polls.

The party demanded a non-party government’s supervision but the provision was scrapped through the 15th Constitutional Amendment.

Then Awami League-led government refused to budge an inch from its stance of supervising the polls.

It led to a poll-boycott by the BNP-led alliance. As a result of which the Awami League-led coalition secured a comfortable two-third majority.

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Rizvi was giving his reaction to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s interview with the BBC Bangla in London last week.

“The prime minister in her interview said the BNP had made a mistake by not contesting the Jan 5 polls,” he said.

He came down heavily on the Awami League dubbing it a “fascist party” which “does not believe in democracy”.

On Friday, party’s spokesperson Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir claimed the prime minister does not feel the need for talks with the party because the government wants to keep it off elections.

Rizvi said Hasina’s fall would be an example for all future autocrats if she does not take initiative for an all-inclusive election.

The BNP leader protested against the prime minister’s comment that she could not understand why the question of a dialogue with the BNP was being raised time and again.

“It’s only natural,” he said, as the ruling party came to power “with assistance of foreign powers through an election boycotted by the people”.

“She (Hasina) doesn't care about the opposition party or democracy. She simply doesn’t care,” claimed the BNP leader.