Hasina again rules out move for talks with BNP before election

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has once again ruled out the possibilities of any measures to ensure that the BNP contests in parliamentary elections.

“I don’t know if someone is offended and if I have to soothe someone. I don’t wish to get insulted again while trying to sympathise with someone,” she told parliament on Wednesday.

She clearly referred to her Jan 24, 2015 effort to be at the side of BNP chief Khaleda Zia after the former prime minister lost her younger son Arafat Rahman Coco.

But Hasina was turned away without an audience on that day as the BNP chairperson, feeling unwell, had already been ‘put to sleep by her doctors'.

The prime minister had for several times mentioned the incident to reject the BNP’s call for dialogue on an election-time government before the next parliamentary polls scheduled for December.

The BNP boycotted the 2014 general election even after Hasina had called Khaleda over phone for a dialogue – another incident the prime minister mentions.

Now the BNP also demands release of Khaleda, who has been in jail for corruption, before the next elections.

The government, however, is paying no heed to any of the BNP’s demands. It says the next election will be held in line with the constitution, which means Hasina will remain the prime minister during the polls.    

In this situation, opposition the Jatiya Party’s Fakhrul Imam MP asked Hasina, referring to the BNP, how she will solve the current political problem which “is no less a problem than the Rohingya crisis”.

“I don’t know where the anger is. It’s a question of principle, political decision, and of law,” Hasina replied.   

“It is natural that a person will be tried if he or she does something wrong like embezzlement, theft, murder, attempt to murder, carries out grenade and bomb attacks,” she added.  

The prime minister also said it was not solely her duty alone to solve all political crises.

“The country belongs to all. It’s not that the country is mine only. Politicians must have some responsibility towards the country.

“They must set their course of action following the responsibility and execute the plan,” she said.