Opposition leaders' absence from martyrs' families event amounts to contempt, says prime minister

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has said the absence of opposition leaders, despite being invited, from an event held with families of martyrs of the July mass uprising amounts to contempt toward the martyrs' families. He expressed the anger in his speech as chief guest on Monday morning at the inauguration of the 'July Memorial Monument' at Osmani Udyan in the capital. The modernised Osmani Udyan with modern facilities was also formally opened at the same ceremony.

The prime minister said the conscious people of the country have determined through votes whose hands will hold the responsibility of running the country for the next five years. As a result of that verdict, the BNP is in state power today and another party sits in the opposition seat. In his words, both power and the opposition seat are results of the people's verdict, not favours from any side.

Criticising the opposition, the prime minister said they have the full right to constructive criticism of the government and it should be realistic. But he criticised the current opposition for opposing the government only blindly for the sake of opposition. He framed his remarks by drawing a distinction between constructive criticism and blind opposition.

In the prime minister's words, it is extremely regrettable that this political party and its leaders can never hold the spirit of July in their hearts. That is why, even after receiving an invitation, the opposition leader did not join this nationally important event. He presented the absence itself as proof of not holding the spirit of July.

Addressing the opposition further, the prime minister said that if they had any principled objection or reluctance to sit on the same stage as the ruling party, they could, if they wished, have sat together directly with the martyrs' family members and loved ones. In other words, even without sharing a stage with the government, there was an option to sit beside the martyrs' families — this was the argument he put forward.

Raising the national election, the prime minister said that before the vote the current opposition party and its candidates surely went door to door to ordinary voters seeking a verdict in their favour, just as his party had. In the end, the people themselves spontaneously decided who would run the state for the next five years.

He noted that through that public verdict the BNP was placed in government and the other party was given the status of the main opposition. As a result, the opposition's current position is also part of the people's decision — his speech indicated that this reality should have been accepted and the national event joined.

Besides the prime minister, the inauguration was attended by Home Minister Salah Uddin Ahmed, Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Abdul Moin Khan, State Minister Mir Shahe Alam, the prime minister's principal secretary ABM Abdus Sattar, Dhaka South City Corporation administrator Abdus Salam and Dhaka North City Corporation administrator Shafiqul Islam Khan Milton. This presence from the government's top level highlights the national importance of the event.

At the centre of the ceremony were the newly built 'July Memorial Monument' and the martyrs' family members. The prime minister described the inauguration, held at the historic Osmani Udyan, as the inauguration ceremony of a historic memorial monument. Preserving the martyrs' memory was the day's main programme, and the political messages came from that stage.

The main themes of the prime minister's speech were two — respect for the people's verdict, and questions about the opposition's position on the spirit of July. In his view, those who themselves sought votes from the people cannot justify staying away from a national event formed by the people's verdict.

No explanation from the opposition about this absence is present in the material for this report. As a result, what response will come to the prime minister's allegation is not yet known. Attention will remain on whether a counter-reaction comes in political circles to this speech.

The speech given on the day of the memorial's inauguration has brought the ongoing debate over the spirit of July, parliamentary politics and government-opposition relations to the fore again. Attention now turns to what reply the opposition gives to this criticism and whether an environment for participation by all sides in future national events is created.