Sharply criticising The Daily Star and the Prothom Alo, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday said she has refrained from reading these two newspapers since her release from jail in 2008.“I’ve never seen these two newspapers at all since I’ve become becoming head of the government,” she told Parliament.
The Prime Minister was delivering her valedictory speech in the ninth session of the 10th Parliament.
Sheikh Hasina said she knows it very well that even if they write anything good there will be a poke at the end. “And having this poke I might loss my confidence…why it’s necessary to read these newspapers! I know it very well what will they write… they’ll simply write against me!”
Hasina mentioned that the truth cannot be kept hidden for ever.
A couple of days back, she mentioned, one editor participated in a talk-show and admitted that his newspaper wrote everything supplied by the DGFI to prove her corrupt.
“The names of these newspapers are nice — The Daily Star and Prothom Alo (First Light). But their job is for the darkness. What is their job of darkness? Publishing the DGFI write-ups?”
She questioned when they published the news where were the attributions.
Recalling the days of the army-backed caretaker regime, she said its prime job was to hold the election. “But, it was involved in a conspiracy to perpetuate their power…and I was the first hit (victim) of their conspiracy. I was not in power, I was in the opposition, but I was arrested first.”
“During the BNP regime, they filed a dozen cases against me and the caretaker government filed 5-6 cases. These two newspapers wrote false news constantly to prove me corrupt. And who were the suppliers of that false information? The DGFI! Birg Amin and Brig Bari were the suppliers of that false information.”
The Prime Minister went on saying, “No one could escape their harassment and torture….teachers, businesspeople and politicians… nobody could escape their repression.”
She questioned, “What was the intimacy of those two editors with these two DGFI men? “I would like to ask Mahfuz Anam of The Daily Star and Matiur Rahman of the Prothom Alo a question– they answer my question, why there was so much intimacy?”
The Leader of the House said either these two editors were involved in a deep-rooted conspiracy with the DGFI to implement the ‘minus-two’ formula during the caretaker government or they acted as the agents of the DGFI under their payroll. “Had they not been involved in the conspiracy why they would have published such false information!” she wanted to know.
The Prime Minister said that these two editors were nurtured by Brig Amin and Brig Bari. “They were the stars in the eyes of Brig Amin and Brig Bari…they became the stars of Brig Amin and Brig Bari. This was the reality…they were the light of Brig Amin and Brig Bari.”
Hasina said there are two editors who always try to create an abnormal situation in Bangladesh so that somebody can come to the power through unconstitutional means to raise their importance. “They suffer from suffocation in a democratic environment…they don’t want democracy.”
The Prime Minister said if they have the greed for going to power then they could form a political party. “We came down on the streets, faces the police atrocities, repeatedly went to jail…always spoke for the rights of people…I returned to the country risking my life,” she told the House.
Hasina also mentioned that they do politics by making the death as their servant. “If they have so much interest to do politics and go to power then they can do that with people’s mandate,” she said.
The Prime Minister said these people do not have the trust in people and their verdict but has the dream of coming to power.
She also said another person who was the managing director of a bank had the same dream. “That person stayed as the managing director for additional 10 years violating the rules. He again moved the court to get back his post, but the court abides by the law and dismissed his plea,” she said.
The Prime Minister was delivering her winding-up speech in the ninth session of the 10th Parliament.
Mentioning that the government wanted to honour him by making him adviser emeritus of the bank, she said, “But he refused that.”
The Prime Minister continued: “That person could not win the case, but all blames were put on me. And the anger for losing the MD post travelled to the Padma Bridge.”
She claimed that he, using his friends living in the USA, got the World Bank suspend the fund for the Padma Bridge project on the allegation of corruption conspiracy.
“I took that challenge… where is the corruption? I repeatedly asked for the proof but they never show the evidence, even not now. The Canadian court also seeks the proof, but they have failed to provide so,” Hasina said.
She said the two editors tried to form a party along with the Nobel laureate who was the MD of that Bank. “But, people rejected their move,” she added.
The Prime Minister also mentioned that the conspiracy of these people is still on. “They still think if they could derail the democracy by any means and something comes in an unconstitutional way, their fate will be brighter. By the grace of Allah, that will never happen in Bangladesh as people are very much aware.”
Mentioning that Bangladesh is marching ahead, she said no one will be able to stop this advancement.
