Opposition lawmakers on Monday briefly joined the budget session of the parliament after an 83-day boycott and then staged a walkout protesting a ban on political rallies in the capital.
The walkout was led by senior lawmaker of opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Moudud Ahmed, who rose on a point of order and lashed out at Home Minister Dr Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir for imposing the ban. “We are strongly condemning such restrictions on the political rallies and meetings in the capital and walking out of the Parliament in protest,” the BNP stalwart declared before leaving the House en block with all other opposition members of parliament.
He demanded that the home minister say sorry for imposing such ban and withdraw it right away. “If he does it, then we will make all out efforts to make the parliament effective,” the BNP leader said amid noisy applause of the opposition lawmakers.
“Despite being the largest political party in the country, BNP is not allowed to hold rallies or meetings in the city anymore,” Moudud said and questioned the House: “What country are we living in today – is it democracy or autocracy?”
Moudud said we do not believe that there is any democracy in the country even though the government often talks about democracy. He said promulgation of law or a declaration of emergency is required for banning political rallies or meetings in the country.
Since there is no such law or emergency that bans political meetings or rallies in the city, should we assume that there is an “undeclared emergency” that is not letting those rallies and meetings to take place in the capital, he wondered.
As the opposition lawmakers left the house, senior treasury bench member Tofail Ahmed took the floor and launched a broadside against Moudud Ahmed for leading the abrupt walkout of the BNP and Jatiya Party legislators.
“They came to the House only for their salaries and benefits and keeping their parliament membership intact,” Tofail said adding: “I’m surprised. There was no incident that took place in the house that led such walkout.”
He said it is now clear to the people of Bangladesh that they returned to parliament just to “save their membership and protect their allowances.”
Tofail said that even though we agreed to discuss BNP’s adjourned motion on caretaker government issue, the opposition lawmakers chose to leave the House.
“I don’t know whether we’ll find them in the House again. BNP should not have walked out in such way,” Tofail said and urged the opposition to return to the House again and make it an effective and beautiful parliament one more time.
Another ruling party lawmaker Syed Ali Ashraf said: “It’s condemnable and unprecedented in the history of Bangladesh. We strongly condemn the walkout.
-With The Independent input
