Nahid Islam, convener of the National Citizen Party (NCP), has sharply criticized the government led by Prime Minister Tareque Rahman, calling the BNP-led administration’s first six months in office “completely failed.” He said the government has failed badly on all three of its stated priorities — controlling commodity prices, improving law and order, and ensuring power and energy supply. He claimed that 180 days in office have proven Prime Minister Tareque Rahman has no plan for running the country.
He made the allegations Monday, August 24, at a press conference held by NCP’s sub-committee on policy and research to highlight what the party described as the ruling BNP government’s failures over its first 180 days.
“Out of mismanagement, incompetence and lack of planning, the government is drifting back toward a fascist, authoritarian structure,” Nahid Islam said. “These 180 days have proven that Tareque Rahman has no plan whatsoever for running the country.”
Evaluating the government’s first six months, Nahid Islam said: “In these 180 days, the government has shown mismanagement and failure in 29 different areas, including the energy crisis, commodity prices and the deteriorating law-and-order situation.”
He said: “The government had set out a plan for its first 180 days, in which it prioritized three things — controlling commodity prices, improving law and order, and ensuring power and energy supply. What we’ve seen is that in these six months, on exactly the three issues they prioritized, they have shown dismal failure.”
Alleging that the government, once in power, has continued running the country along old plans and policies, the NCP convener said: “Because of poor planning, corruption and mismanagement, you’re seeing them having to reshuffle the cabinet within six months, even though they said they had a plan. Now the government is asking for two more days for a plan — they’re changing ministers, changing state ministers. We don’t know at what point they’ll feel the need to change the prime minister too.”
Noting that the interim government before it was not given even three months, he said: “They should have expressed regret, apologized, for the gas crisis people are suffering through across the country as supply keeps getting cut off. They spoke with such confidence about bringing sound economic management and a proper law-and-order environment — but they haven’t been able to deliver on any of it.”
Anticipating the question of whether six months is enough time to judge the government’s performance, Nahid Islam said: “Once six months have passed, this government can no longer say it’s the fault of the interim government or the fascist government before it. That will not be acceptable to the public in any way.”
He said that if the government does not resolve the country’s crises and does not step back from what he described as a drift back into old-style politics, it will face a large-scale movement against it.
Nahid Islam added: “Once another six months have passed, this government will no longer be able to say this is the fault of the interim government or the previous government. That will not be acceptable to the public in any way.”
He said NCP is highlighting various aspects of the government’s first six months for the public, adding that the party is monitoring the government’s actions on issues including the electricity, gas and energy crisis, drug policy, fertilizer, human rights, and the land commission law.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report