Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General and former lawmaker Mia Golam Porwar on Wednesday warned the BNP-led government not to push the country into anarchy, while offering to hold talks with the opposition on implementing the July Charter and the referendum verdict.
Speaking as chief guest at the 49th founding anniversary of Bangladesh Labour Party at its central office in Segunbagicha, Dhaka, he accused the government of political immaturity, short-sighted leadership and party politicisation, saying it had become entangled in its own failings within just seven months in office.
Labour Party Chairman Dr Mostafizur Rahman Iran presided over the programme, which was also addressed by top leaders of the 11-party alliance.
Golam Porwar said the government should not throw the country into the fire of chaos and instability. By creating unrest and heating up the streets through wrong politics, he said, the government itself was giving the Awami League a chance to return.
He said the BNP, Jamaat and other opposition parties had earlier taken to the streets together in the anti-fascist movement. Had they been able to accept the verdict of 70 percent of voters on constitutional reform together, the Awami League would have had no chance of re-entering politics, he said.
He said the opposition had not launched any violent movement against what he described as a betrayal of the people's verdict.
"We have not let the country become unstable because we love the country," he said.
"The government still has time. Implement the constitutional reform proposals agreed in the Consensus Commission through discussion with the opposition in parliament. We are offering you that opportunity; let us talk," Porwar said.
He noted that the current Prime Minister had also urged people to vote "Yes" in the referendum. The 70 percent "Yes" vote on the four ballot questions, he said, meant all of the BNP's notes of dissent had been nullified, and it was now the government's responsibility to uphold the verdict and keep the country stable.
Saying Jamaat upheld the July Charter, he claimed Jamaat and the opposition had delivered medical care and assistance to the homes of July martyrs and fighters.
He asked how many such homes ruling party members had visited.
"Rejecting the verdict of 70 percent of voters or scrapping the referendum in parliament would mean not upholding July," he said.
"Around four ministers and lawmakers have already left in this period," Golam Porwar said. "We have not seen such immature, inept and apolitical statements and leadership from the earlier political parties while in government."
He said the Prime Minister and others blame the opposition whenever unrest occurs in the garment or industrial sectors, or roads are blockaded, claiming the opposition is provoking instability.
Addressing the government, he said its network was maintaining close ties with the Awami League behind the scenes.
Referring to the Prime Minister's remarks in North Bengal on Tuesday that intelligence information pointed to an opposition conspiracy, he said the government was relying on the very intelligence apparatus left by the Awami League, which had branded innocent people as militants and subjected them to crossfire, remand and secret detention. "You have still not removed those intelligence officials," he said, questioning how the government could blame the opposition on that basis.
He said criticism of misdeeds and politicisation was dismissed as instability. "The duty of the opposition is to present the government's misdeeds to the nation. This is the path of fascism," he said. Comparing the situation to the Awami League era, he said Sheikh Hasina's government also labelled criticism as anti-state conspiracy and held innocent people for years, adding that the present government was beginning on the same bad path.
Citing Chief Whip Nurul Islam Moni's reported remarks in Barguna that development allocations would be withheld from unions where BNP candidates did not win, he asked whether such a statement was befitting a minister-ranked chief whip.
He said the opposition had held two long marches in the past seven to eight months to press for implementation of the referendum verdict, with a third scheduled for October 31. Meanwhile, he said, the government had raised gas and electricity prices, created a fertiliser crisis and let commodity prices climb, with murder and rape rising unchecked. He alleged that city corporations, district councils and government and autonomous posts had been filled with selected activists of Chhatra Dal, Jubo Dal and the BNP.
"We did not call a single hartal or blockade, set fire to a vehicle or vandalise anything. Yet you call us destabilising," he said.
Referring to the plight of workers, he said inflation was above 9 percent, with price rises for essentials and non-food items even higher. Worker families, he said, could not survive in the difficult circumstances.
He said it was the government's duty to hold talks with owners and meet workers' demand for a minimum wage in line with market prices, in order to end the ongoing agitation.
Golam Porwar also praised the Labour Party for refusing to compromise on its ideology despite temptations of ministerial posts and other benefits, and for maintaining ties with "patriotic, anti-hegemonic Islamic forces". He criticised what he called mushroom political parties that register themselves and engage in lobbying and sycophancy. He conveyed thanks and good wishes on behalf of Jamaat and the 11-party alliance, as well as greetings from Jamaat Ameer Dr Shafiqur Rahman, who is also Leader of the Opposition.
He also called on people to join the third-phase long march on October 31 along the Dhaka-Khulna-Jashore-Jhenaidah-Kushtia route.