BALIADANGI, Thakurgaon — The July Charter is not the agenda of any single political party but of the people of Bangladesh, Sarjis Alam, chief organizer of the National Citizen Party (NCP) for the northern region, said Tuesday.
Seventy percent of voters backed the implementation of the charter in a national referendum, Alam said, speaking to reporters on the afternoon of Tuesday, March 17, after addressing a party workers’ meeting at the Samiruddin Memorial College hall room in Baliadangi upazila.
Criticizing the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Alam said the BNP had formed the government with about 50 percent of the vote, while 70 percent had voted yes on the July Charter. “That means many BNP supporters also backed the charter,” he said. “If, after coming to power, the BNP forgets this huge mandate and the will of the referendum, that will be the first step on the path to autocracy.”
The constitution exists for the people, and so does the state, he said. “The constitution itself says the people are the sovereign authority. When the people give a mandate to implement the July Charter, any attempt to monopolize power by invoking the constitution will not be accepted by a freedom-loving people. From the streets to parliament, we will resist such attempts together with the people.”
Alam also expressed deep concern over the country’s law-and-order situation, saying the government and the relevant ministry had not taken effective action to curb crime. Killings have occurred in Uttara and at the Shaheed Minar, but no firm steps are visible so far, he said. If law enforcement had taken a tough stand in time, such a situation would not have arisen, he said.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report