Speakers at an open discussion titled “One year of the July Charter: an account of promises and expectations” said that fulfilling the aspirations of the July mass uprising, reforming the state and putting the referendum verdict into effect are now the demand of the moment. The government, they said, promised to implement the July Charter but is now backing away from it, against the people’s expectations.
Speaking as chief guest at the discussion, organised by the Amar Bangladesh Party (AB Party) at the Shafiqul Kabir auditorium of the Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) on Sunday, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami ameer and leader of the opposition Dr Shafiqur Rahman said BNP had been oppressed until 5 August but quickly forgot the past after that. By not implementing the July Charter and the referendum verdict, he said, the government is cheating the people.
“Even if BNP changes, we will not change,” he said. “We will not rest until the July Charter and the referendum are implemented. This government does not deserve the opposition’s cooperation. From today the opposition will cooperate not with the government but with 180 million people.”
He added that the movement belonged not only to the 11 parties, but was a movement to block the path of fascism and build a just Bangladesh for future generations.
The meeting was chaired by AB Party chairman Mojibur Rahman Manju and moderated by joint secretary general Barrister Zobaer Ahmed Bhuiyan.
Manju said the nation had grown tired of hearing the government promise to implement the July Charter to the letter. “We never imagined the government would retreat from its promise so quickly,” he said.
He said BNP itself claims 848 of its activists were martyred in July. Out of its obligation to the blood and lives of the martyrs, the government should implement the July Charter. Sheikh Hasina paid the price for not keeping her promises to the nation, he said, and BNP should not make the same mistake.
Speaking as special guest, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) chairman Dr Colonel (retd) Oli Ahmad Bir Bikram said the government must understand what the people want. The prime minister had promised more than once to implement the July Charter to the letter, and keeping promises is the moral duty of political leadership. He also said the distribution of various cards before an election raised fears of influencing the vote, while the Election Commission was not playing an effective role.
Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis ameer Shaykhul Hadith Allama Mamunul Haque said the July Charter is one of the most important political documents in Bangladesh’s history and a blueprint for repairing the state. Students and the public rose up because of the failure to reform the state, he said.
“The July Charter must be put into effect,” he said. “Otherwise the crisis over constitutional reform will deepen.”
Hasnat Abdullah MP, chief organiser (southern region) of the National Citizen Party (NCP), said BNP had deceived the nation over the July Charter and violated several of its clauses.
In his view, the demand for a reform council was to ensure the continuity of reform and to implement the referendum verdict. Going ahead without the July Charter, he said, is like boarding a vehicle with no fitness certificate.
He alleged the government is pushing the state towards business interests instead of public welfare, and warned that running the state while ignoring the basic spirit of the July Charter would create a new political crisis.
AB Party secretary general Barrister Asaduzzaman Fuad said the July Charter is one of the most important written political documents of 2024. Its basic purpose is to rebuild the institutions of the state and ensure accountability.
“Through signing the July Charter and the referendum, a political decision on reform has been made; the main task now is to implement it,” he said. “It is not acceptable to invoke the constitution whenever the charter’s implementation is questioned. A political crisis has to be solved politically, and the AB Party is ready for that.”
AB Party joint secretary general Barrister Abbas Islam Khan Noman also spoke.
Joint secretaries general Advocate Abdullah Al Mamun Rana, ABM Khalid Hasan, Md Altaf Hossain, Shahadatullah Tutul and Aminul Islam FCA attended, along with the party’s city convenors and member secretaries for Dhaka North, Dhaka South and Gazipur, its central secretaries, and leaders and activists at various levels.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report