Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday came down heavily on BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia for what was termed ‘her repeated falsehood’ about police in various Iftar parties during the holy month of Ramadan, terming it very unfortunate.
“We saw the BNP leader was putting false blame on us in various Iftar parties and it’s very unfortunate,” she told parliament in her winding-up speech.
The prime minister said it was very much regretful that Khaleda Zia accused the police personnel of hurling petrol bombs during their 93-day non-stop blockade and hartal programme.
“These police personnel work tirelessly day and night all the time– even during holy Ramadan. She started to pin the blame on them,” she said.The Awami League chief said it was known to all that BNP, Jamaat and Shibir men threw the agitation programme from January which continued for 93 days.
She mentioned that this evil nexus hurled petrol bombs on common people and killed more than 150 innocent ones.
“But now she is saying that police hurled all those petrol bombs and put fire to various property,” she said, adding that she was astonished hearing Khaleda’s blatant lies in this holy month.
Sheikh Hasina said the BNP-Jamaat clique did the same thing during the election back in 2013. “We saw their torture and oppression in the name of resisting the election… they took away so many lives then. And they did this again in 2015 and the country’s people had to undergo their torture,” she said.
Citing an instance of the falsehood of the BNP-Jamaat alliance, she said after the heinous August 21 grenade attack on the Awami League rally, the combine had said that Sheikh Hasina herself hurled those grenades from her vanity bag. “Khaleda Zia and her party men accused me that I myself took those grenades in my vanity bag and threw those as I went there to commit suicide… they had said this here in parliament,” she said.
Observing that to tell lies is their habit, the Awami League president said, “They’re trying to shift their crime on others.”
She thanked the country’s people for resisting the oppression and torture of the BNP-Jamaat nexus, saying the government had done everything to protect people’s lives and public property.
She also ridiculed Khaleda Zia for her announcement that she would not return to her residence from her Gulshan office without toppling the Awami League government. “But she had to surrender before a court and go back to her home,” she said.
Talking about another allegation brought by the BNP chief that there is no food and work in the rural areas, the Prime Minister said if the allegation is true then how a day labourer could earn money in a day to buy 10/12 kg rice.
“We’re distributing food grains among the ultra poor people. We’ve ensured the food security and increased the production of food grains,” she added.
Hasina categorically mentioned that the allegation of Khaleda Zia regarding the non-availability of food in the rural areas is nothing else but a sheer lie.
She also posed a question, “Why have the wages of the day labourers increased significantly if the allegation is true? This is my question.”
The Prime Minister also mentioned that the poverty rate decreased significantly during the tenure of the Awami League government and around five crore people graduated from lower income group to middle income group.
She also said the government is not sitting idle. “If the government sat idle, then the country would not move towards the development so fast.”
“We’re working tirelessly for the welfare of the country and its people and it’s our prime duty,” she said.- UNB
