Money Is Coming From Across the Border While Instability Is Being Fomented at Home, PM Tarique Rahman Tells Rajshahi Rally
Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has said, “One side is giving money from across the border, while another side, sitting inside the country, is trying to create instability. The autocrat who fled is supplying the money there. There is a party that spreads confusion inside the country, that before the election lied to the people and tried to sell various tickets; these two sides have joined together.”
He made the remarks as chief guest at a public rally at Rajshahi's historic Madrasa field (the Haji Muhammad Mohsin Government High School ground) on Tuesday (20 October) afternoon. The rally was the centre of political discussion throughout his Rajshahi tour, during which he also visited puja mandaps in the city.
Calling for unity to resist conspiracy, the Prime Minister said, “In the past, too, whenever Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman and Deshnetri Khaleda Zia set about changing the fate of the country's people, domestic and foreign quarters conspired to stop that progress. Those quarters are active again, trying to obstruct the country's advancement. So, to keep the pace of development, all nationalist and democratic forces must remain united.”
Urging the nation to be alert, he said, “The time has come for the people of Bangladesh to be conscious. From today we must be alert so that no one can create any more disorder in Bangladesh, and so that no one can obstruct the process that has begun to change Bangladesh's economy and the fate of its people.”
Criticising those creating disorder on the streets, the Prime Minister said the BNP government is working to bring stability to the country and increase security. The government is encouraging domestic and foreign entrepreneurs to reopen closed mills and factories and to invest, so that unemployed workers get jobs and the goods produced can go abroad.
He said, “But to obstruct these efforts and mislead the people, one particular party, together with a few others, is trying to create chaos on the streets. They want to slow down the government's pro-people work. Those who take up programmes that harm the people cannot be friends of the people.”
Drawing on 1971 and 2024, Tarique Rahman said, “Before fleeing in the 2024 mass uprising, the autocrat killed hundreds of students and ordinary innocent people. Because the BNP holds on to '52, '71 and '24, it has stood beside martyrs' families and the injured July fighters. Yesterday (Monday) we built a memorial at Osmani Udyan in Dhaka in memory of those martyrs.”
He alleged that although the political parties that claim to uphold '24 were invited, no representative of those parties attended the ceremony honouring the July martyrs. “That is, just as they deceived the people in 1971, they have deceived them in the same way over the July movement of '24. Their words say one thing and their deeds show another,” he said.
Presenting the government's development work at the rally, the Prime Minister said that so that workers do not remain unemployed, six closed mills and factories across the country have been reopened through entrepreneurs within seven months of the government's formation. Initiatives have been taken to reopen 46 more closed factories between January and December next year.
He said incentives have been arranged for around 40,000 sugarcane farmers across the country. In line with the election pledge, the farm loans of 1.3 million farmers were waived with interest within seven days of the government's formation, and agriculture cards will be delivered to 4 million farmers this year.
To resolve irrigation and water crises, 20,000 kilometres of canals will be excavated over the next five years, of which 800 kilometres have been completed in the past eight months, the Prime Minister said. Alongside securing a fair share of water, the Padma and Teesta barrages will be built as quickly as possible, he added.
The Prime Minister said initiatives have been taken to upgrade every upazila hospital from 50 to 150 beds, to plant 250 million trees to protect the environment, to provide free education up to honours level along with stipends for girls, and to launch family cards to make women economically self-reliant.
The rally was presided over by Rajshahi city BNP president Mamun Or Rashid Mamun. Speakers included BNP acting secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, standing committee member Goyeshwar Chandra Roy, chairman's adviser and Land Minister Mizanur Rahman Minu, Commerce Minister Khandaker Abdul Muktadir, Cultural Affairs Minister Nitai Roy Chowdhury, BNP organising secretary Shahin Shawkat, Rajshahi-6 MP and district BNP convener Abu Sayeed Chand, Rajshahi-3 MP Shafiqul Islam Milon, Rajshahi-5 MP Professor Nazrul Islam Mondal, and BMDA chairman retired Major General Sharif Uddin. The rally was conducted by Rajshahi city BNP general secretary Mahfuzur Rahman Riton.
The Prime Minister's Rajshahi speech carried two central themes — a warning about conspiracies to create instability, and a running account of his government's development work. Attention now turns to the reaction in the political arena to his call for unity and his warnings.
