Please call up Khaleda, Badruddoza Chowdhury urges Hasina

Former president AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury has urged the government to initiate moves to end the political crisis in Bangladesh.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 16 Feb 2015, 04:34 PM
Updated : 16 Feb 2015, 04:53 PM

“The country is burning. People are dying. The economy is being ruined.

“It’s no big issue whether the government is elected or not. Now the government has to take a prompt initiative for a dialogue,” he told journalists on Monday.

Talking to reporters at his Baridhara residence in Dhaka, Chowdhury said: “I wish to tell the head of the government ‘please phone (BNP Chairperson) Khaleda Zia and talk to her’.”

“You are in the government. So your responsibility is more than that of others. Sit in Dhaka or in Cox’s Bazar.

“You have to hold dialogues in the interest of the country. It’s you who has to resolve the crisis,” he added.

Chowdhury, also the chief of Bikalpadhara Bangladesh, made the call amid conflicting positions of the BNP and the government over snap polls under a non-party caretaker administration.

The BNP-led 20-Party alliance has enforced a countrywide non-stop transport blockade and several rounds of shutdown since Jan 5, the first anniversary of the last general election, to press its demand, which the government has rejected.

The ruling Awami League is blaming the BNP for a ‘lack of congenial environment’ for dialogue.

Chowdhury, the founding secretary general of the BNP, expects the two major political parties will be prudent and pull the nation out of the present crisis.

“The situation which has been created in the country cannot be allowed to go on. An end to it is urgently needed,” he said.

The former president requested the BNP to strike a compromise for a political dialogue.

Referring to Hasina’s statement that she would not go for any dialogue with ‘the killer’, he said: “It’s (Hasina’s stance) not fair. Bargaining is a part of politics. Bangabandhu (Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) had sat with his arch enemies and bargained.”

Chowdhury said Hasina had sat with the BDR mutineers and ‘terrorists’ of Chittagong Hill Tracts and asked: “Why you can’t sit with Begum Zia?”

He criticised Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan for his remark during a programme held near the BNP chief’s office.

“I heard the shipping minister said that (Khaleda) would be hauled to Kashimpur jail unless she called off the blockade and shutdown. This statement of the shipping minister is ridiculous. It harms the dignity of politician.”

Chowdhury also criticised the government’s cutting off food supplies to Khaleda’s office.

"Bikalpadhara is against violent politics. Shutdowns and blockade hurt the country and lead to people's suffering. We think political parties should think of new, alternative programmes to these violent ones," he said.