Opposition acting chief whip M Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Anee on Thursday said in Parliament that ‘dysfunctional’ Bangladesh will turn functional once BNP senior vice chairman Tarique Rahman returns home.“Tarique Rahman is a duplicate of Ziaur Zahman, Tarique Rahman is an institute… once he returns home, dysfunctional Bangladesh will turn functional and the country of misrule will become a country of good governance,” he said.
The BNP lawmaker elected from Laxmipur-3 made the remarks while taking part in the discussion on the proposed budget for next fiscal (2013-14).
He said BNP would return to power with the people’s support through the election that must be under non-party, neutral caretaker government.
Anee, a former student leader, said the government has closed all the doors of creating future leaders of Bangladesh. “Elections to the DUCSU (Dhaka University Central Students Union) and other ‘Chhatra Sangsads’ (students unions) of various educational institutions are not being held.”
“How the new leaders will be created when the government stopped the elections through terrorism,” he questioned, and said: “It’s your (govt) responsibility to ensure peaceful environment in the country’s educational institutions.”
The acting opposition chief whip said the problem is with the national leadership. “The national leadership is not proper.”
Criticizing the role of Bangladesh Chattra League (BCL), the student wing of the ruling party, he said their activities deserve a place in the ‘Guinness Book of World Records’.
Indicating Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, he said the government has both achievements and failures and the Education Minister should have highlighted the failures too.
Criticizing those who pass ill remarks against late President Ziaur Rahman, Anee said: “Zia is a history, Zia is a sentiment. Zia has gifted a nation.”
On 1/11 episode, he said, “1/11 was not created in a day. It was pre-planned. It wasn’t the result of our movement….she (Sheikh Hasina) said she would give legality to the activities of the 1/11 government.”
Turning to the proposed budget for next fiscal, the BNP lawmaker said budget is the life of democracy and there is no scope to impose tax on people without discussion.
“It could have been better to allow discussion about the budget in the parliamentary standing committee before and also after the announcing the budget. Great Britain has done it through amendment three decades ago,” he said.
Anee also criticized the Finance Minister, saying that investment has not increased and this kept the growth rate lower than expected.
On the share market, he said Tk 84,000 crore have been looted from the share market putting some 35 lakh small investors into untold miseries. “It’s a big failure of the government.”
