Alluding to the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has said: “Please look at your own house first. Deal with how people in your own house are abusing women, and then come and tell others something.”
“Leaders of a secret political party are lecturing us: do this, do that. Today, in front of hundreds of thousands of people here, I want to tell them: please look at your own house first,” he said. People should look at their own actions before pointing fingers at others, and set out before the public what they did for women and ordinary people when in power, he added.
He was speaking at a rally on Thursday afternoon (October 1) after inaugurating the Tk 1,500 crore Muhuri-Kahua irrigation project in Parshuram, Feni, his mother’s home district. Expressing his joy at being there, he said that coming to his maternal home was not enough: he must fulfil the responsibility given to him with the people’s prayers and support, and work for the people of his maternal home as well as the country.
Countless BNP leaders and activists were tortured, arrested and harassed in recent years for speaking out about voting and human rights, and now is the time to establish democracy and people’s right to vote, he said. Some political parties are spreading confusion and trying to create anarchy around unwanted incidents, and if development programmes such as family cards and farmer cards are disrupted, ordinary people will suffer.
Pledging to establish the rule of law, which he said had been trampled in the past, the prime minister urged party workers and the public to remain politically alert. Programmes for farmers, family cards for women and river and canal dredging all aim to benefit ordinary people, he said, adding that the BNP does politics for the people and wants to work for their welfare.
The rally was chaired by Water Resources Minister Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anee and attended by Environment Minister Abdul Awal Chowdhury Mintoo, local MP Munshi Rafiqul Alam Majnu, other ministers and MPs, senior government officials and BNP leaders.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report