Both the ruling Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party are coming up with opposite stances over holding political programmes across the country.
Lashing tongues against each other, leaders of both the parties seem jockeying with each other for supremacy.
The AL has already declared that it would not allow the BNP to the streets without prior permission from the proper authorities to hold any meeting.
Against the ruling party’s stance, the BNP raised a counter question saying that if the AL believes in democracy, why such permission would be needed for holding any political programmes in the country.
Mahmudur Rahman Manna, president of Nagarik Oikya, also an ally of the BNP, on Friday said that they would not leave the streets until unseating the government.
“The government has to go. We will not leave the street until fulfilling that goal. The journey (movement), which has started, will not be stopped until unseating the government,” he said while addressing a programme in front of the Jatiya Press Club.
Insiders of the AL say that after failing to foil the January 7 polls, the BNP along with its like-minded parties has been planning to wage a fresh round of movement to create unrest in the country.
In its attempt, the BNP tried to bring out a ‘black flag’ procession on the journey of the 12th parliament as part of its deep-rooted conspiracy, they say.
Sensing the BNP’s evil plan, AL general secretary Obaidul Quader on Wednesday issued a note of warning against the BNP saying that the government would not sit idle if the BNP’s ‘freestyle programmes’ are held on the city streets without taking permission.
“The police did not give permission. There is no scope to undertake freestyle programmes without permission. There is no reason to think that they (BNP) will hold freestyle programmes on the streets without taking permission, and we will allow it,” he told reporters at a briefing at party president Sheikh Hasina’s political office at Dhanmondi.
AL insiders think that BNP took to the streets with black flags as part of its deep-rooted conspiracy and BNP might indulge in a fresh round of subversive activities in the name of political programmes.
After boycotting the January 7 polls, the BNP has been trying to prove the AL-led government as a fascist one at home and abroad.
Referring to its pre-scheduled black flag procession programme, BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Wednesday told reporters that police attacked the leaders and activists across the country while they were holding peaceful programmes.
“Many leaders were humiliated and arrested while a number of cases were filed against many leaders,” he said.
On the AL’s threat, BNP chairperson’s advisor Joynal Abedin Farroque on Thursday ran a counter attack.
“If the AL believes in democracy, why such permission is needed?” he posed a question.
Pointing finger at the AL, he asked the ruling camp to face them in the field of politics without the support of the law enforcement agencies.
“Those who say that the BNP does not have the organisational strength, I request them to take to the streets keeping the police force neutral for a single day. Let’s test the strength as to who wins and who suffers defeat,” he said.
AL joint general secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim on Thursday said the BNP was trying to create discontent among the people through communal and ill politics.
“BNP is the main patron of communal and undemocratic politics. BNP-Jamaat is carrying out terrorist activities in the name of movement in order to create anarchy across the country,” Nasim said urging all to remain alert to the BNP conspiracy.
