Information and Broadcasting Minister and Awami League Joint General Secretary Dr Hasan Mahmud Wednesday said there is no question of holding dialogue with BNP over the caretaker government issue.
“Have we called them (BNP) to hold dialogue? There is no need to hold a dialogue over the caretaker government issue. And we didn’t call them for dialogue. If we called them they would have had the opportunity to say whether they would come to the dialogue or not,” he said.
The minister told reporters replying to a query at the meeting room of his ministry at the Secretariat in the capital.
Hasan said elections are neither held under the Awami League government nor under the Prime Minister. There is no scope for going to the polls under the AL as the election will be held under the Election Commission (EC).
He said, “The polls will be held under the EC as per the constitution.”
The present government will perform its responsibility as the election-period government similar to all other parliamentary democratic governments, including India, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, and countries of Continental Europe like Germany and France, he added.
So, there is no question of holding dialogue over the caretaker-government issue, said the ruling party leader.
Replying to another query over BNP’s nomination trade in the last elections, the minister said BNP had nominated 900 candidates for 300 seats in the last general elections, which never happened in the history of Bangladesh.
“In my constituency, we first saw one person get the nomination, then we saw it was reversed as another got the nomination. Then we saw that the ‘Sheaf of Paddy’, the electoral symbol of BNP, was sold and given to LDP . . . And BNP women workers protested it,” he said.
Hasan said BNP did the nomination trade in the last polls as they had nominated 900 candidates for 300 seats, which had a tremendous impact on their election results.
He said, “Awami League is an ideological party and we do not give nominations to recently retired bureaucrats or big businessmen, except for long-time tested leaders or workers. The tested leaders and workers, who have popularity, will be nominated by Awami League.”
He said many went to BNP as they didn’t get nominations from Awami League. “And they got nomination from BNP in exchange of a huge amount of money. Even later, they became ministers. BNP practices this kind of trade as the party was born through distributing the leftovers of power,” said Hasan.
He said many BNP leaders, including Mirza Fakhrul, Rizvi, and Khandaker Mossharraf, were involved with another party. Consequently, they have no ideology and they do such nomination trade, said Hasan.
Earlier, the minister unwrapped the covers of two books named ‘Bangabandhur Rajnoitik Darshon o Swadhin Bangladesher Swapno’ written by Ekushey Award winner Professor Dr Bikiran Prashad Barua and ‘Tumi Bangabandhu, Tumi Jatir Pita’ written by Md Rafiqul Islam.
Dr Bikiran, Amar Prakashoni owner Amar Hawlader, journalist Avi Chowdhury, Kishor Kumar Barua and Golam Kader, among others, were present at the ceremony.
