Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Thursday that in the present context there is no need for a caretaker government to oversee the next general election, as each and every poll has been held in a free and fair manner under the present government. “It is true that we too launched a movement for a caretaker government. We had a logical reason for it, but the BNP does not have any justifiable ground, as we are not holding Magura, February-15 style elections,” Hasina said this at a meeting with the Awami League’s grassroots level leaders from Pirojpur at her official residence Ganobhaban.
Claiming that only the AL can hold proper elections, Hasina said: “The latest four city corporation elections once again prove that free and fair elections are possible under the present government.”
Hasina, also the AL president, said if a caretaker government is formed it may not hold elections and may try to cling to power for an indefinite period.
“I don’t know what the BNP is hoping to achieve by wanting to put a caretaker government in power again. If such a government comes to power, it won’t hold elections and there will be nothing else to do but shed tears,” she said.
The Prime Minister warned that if a caretaker government comes to power this time, it will try to do everything which it could not in the past.
Criticising the Opposition leader Khaleda Zia for repeatedly demanding restoration of the caretaker government system, the Awami League president asked: “Who has given her the guarantee that the caretaker administration will put her (Khaleda) in power? How has Begum Zia forgotten that a caretaker government had sent her to jail and expelled her two sons from the country by taking a written undertaking,” she added.
Sheikh Hasina said now people are free to vote for their chosen candidates. If they vote for the Awami League, it will come to power, otherwise not.
Describing the BNP as “plunderer, killer, terrorist and corrupt”, the Prime Minister said: “We can do nothing if people want to elect them.”
Sheikh Hasina said the main objective of her government is people’s empowerment and establishing voting rights, as it wants to see uninterrupted democracy in the country.
Referring to the Opposition’s movement, the she iterated that the BNP has been staging movements only for saving war criminals, not for restoring the caretaker government system.
Sheikh Hasina said the government has initiated the trial of war criminals and set up the International War Crimes Tribunals and it has already started pronouncing verdicts to ensure justice. The present government will execute the judgements to free the country from the stigma of war crimes.
Mentioning the unbridled corruption during the rule of the BNP-Jamaat government, she alleged that it was the Zia-led BNP government which introduced “loan default culture” in the country.
She also alleged that Khaleda Zia’s two sons amassed huge wealth through corruption and money laundering. Their corruption was proven in US and Singapore courts, she said, adding that the BNP always “steals votes and public money”.
Referring to the violent acts of the Opposition in the name of movement, Sheikh Hasina said the Opposition is killing innocent people, policemen, army men, bus and CNG drivers to protect war criminals and put the defeated forces in power again.
Coming down heavily on a section of people describing the present government as “atheist” she said: “We offer prayers five times a day, but those people call us atheists, but persons getting up from bed at 12 noon are being described as ‘astik’ (religious).”
Sheikh Hasina described her government’s successes in the fields of agriculture, education, economy, health, information technology, food security and women’s empowerment.
At the same time the Prime Minister called upon her party leaders and activists to project the government’s success before the people and to be united in order to strengthen the organisation.
Among others, the AL presidium member, Satish Chandra Roy, PM’s adviser Dr Alauddin Ahmed, AL joint secretaries Mahbub- ul Alam Hanif and Jahangir Kabir Nanak, office secretary Abdul Mannan Khan and former chief whip Abul Hasnat Abdullah were present.
The AL deputy office secretary, Mrinal Kanti Das, conducted the meeting which was convened as part of a series of view-exchange meetings with the grassroots-level leaders and workers initiated by the Awami League at the end of 2011.
-With The Independent input
