Prime Minister and Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday called upon the countrymen to boycott the parties formed illegally by military dictators and remain vigilant against them, reports BSS.
It is not possible to assume power by lobbying foreigners... It seems like someone coming from outside will take the BNP to power through the cradle. It (BNP) has been dreaming so. Once upon a time, they could make it happen by acting as a broker (of foreigners). But there is no scope left in Bangladesh to go to power through the acts of an agent, she said.
The Prime Minister said that the people of the country have now become much more aware and they know better about the country, its history and the target of the Awami League government.
She said the BNP leaders are going to their local and foreign masters and lodging complaints against the Awami League government despite the fact that they did nothing (wrong) with them in comparison to their misdeeds with her party (AL) when it was in the opposition.
The premier said that the BNP, while in power, never allowed the AL to take to the street and unleashed inhuman torture to their leaders and activists, referring to the BNP's nationwide movement without any interference of the government.
General Secretary of the AL and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, MP, gave the address of welcome.
AL Presidium Members, Deputy Leader of the Jatiya Sangsad, Begum Matia Chowdhury, and Mofazzel Hossain Chowdhury Maya, Bir Bikram, former Vice-Chancellor of Dhaka University Prof Dr AAMS Arefin Siddique, Advisory Council Member Prof Dr Sadeka Halim, actor Ferdous Ahmed, AL Information and Research Secretary Dr Salim Mahmud, working committee members Nirmal Kumar Chatterjee and poet Tarik Sujat, Dhaka North and South City AL President and General Secretary respectively Sheikh Bazlur Rahman and Humayun Kabir, among others, spoke at the meeting.
At the outset of the meeting, one-minute silence was observed to show respect to the martyrs of the Language Movement, Liberation War, August 15, 1975 carnage and all the democratic and progressive movements.
The day is also being observed around the world as UNESCO recognised the International Mother Language Day on November 17, 1999. Bangladesh missions abroad also observed the day in a befitting manner.
Sheikh Hasina resentfully criticized the tendency of speaking Bangla in an English accent, calling upon all to speak in Bangla with its own accent without any hesitation as the Bengali is the only nation across the globe who shed their blood for their mother tongue.
The Prime Minister asked the children to learn their mother language properly alongside other languages as the entire world has now become a global village.
“There is no problem in learning other languages. But it is a must to put importance on mother language,” she said.
Recalling the contribution of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to the Language Movement, she said Bangabandhu had led the Language Movement from forming the Rashtrabhasha Sangram Parishad with Chhatra League, Tamuddin Majlish and others and broke Section 144 on February in 1952.
She said Bangabandhu ordered the student leaders to call the strike on February 21, 1952 as well when the student leaders met him in the prison cell of the hospital.
But, the name of Bangabandhu was completely erased from history of the Language Movement and the Liberation War after 1975, she said, adding that his contribution is prominently evident in the book ‘Secret Documents of Pakistani Intelligence Branch on Bangabandhu.
