Hasina taunts Khaleda for stepping onto main altar of the Shaheed Minar

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has taunted BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia for stepping on the main altar of the Central Shaheed Minar by saying that “she made a mistake probably by being struck by midnight imbalance".

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 22 Feb 2017, 05:08 PM
Updated : 22 Feb 2017, 06:52 PM

“She does not have any respect for language. I placed the floral wreath, the president paid respect, but she and her party men trampled the place,” Hasina said on Wednesday at a discussion organised by the Awami League on the occasion of International Mother’s Language Day at the Krishibid Institute.

“If you step onto the place designated for placing flowers, then where did you put flowers? It must be on your own feet,” she asked.

Khaleda faced criticism from different corners for stepping onto the main altar of the Shaheed Minar during the placing of the floral wreath on behalf of her party to pay homage to the language martyrs in the early hours of Feb 21.

The prime minister said, “I understand she lost her balance but what about the people who were accompanying her? They could tell her where to stand. Or should we assume that her party men also lose balance at midnight?”

“They simply ruined the sanctity of the day by their midnight act,” she continued.

The prime minister then stressed focusing on recording the true history of the nation by mentioning the Jan 4, 1971 speech by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the founding anniversary of the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL).

“What he said at that time is still applicable in the present day context. They started distorting the nation’s history after killing the father of the nation,” she argued.

“There was an attempt to erase his (Bangabandhu’s) contribution from history – the leadership role he played in the Language Movement and country’s Independence War.”

“Those who are ‘Pakipremik’ (Pakistan lover) are inclined to distort history. We often hear from them Bangabandhu was in jail at the time of the Language Movement, so how did he lead it?Some people in our circle also fall in this category,” she added.

Hasina also said the poems of Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam were distorted during the Pakistan era.

She urged the people to give up the tendency of speaking ‘Bangla with an English accent’.