Talking to media Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury said they are calling for a dialogue, and the US pre-election assessment mission urged exactly that.
We believe that dialogue among political parties can resolve any crisis in the country’s political arena. But, the fact of the matter is that there is no political crisis in the country at present but a serious political crisis is going on in BNP.
Judging from the past experience, we can definitely say a dialogue between Awami League and BNP cannot yield any positive result or any fruit rather it will intensify the bitterness. We witnessed at the fag end of BNP’s tenure in 2005, the then Awami League General Secretary late Abdul Jalil and the then BNP Secretary General late Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan held several rounds of talks in the National Parliament Complex in order to break the political stalemate.
But, there was no outcome of the dialogue as BNP did not backtrack from its rigid decision. So, the dialogue was a complete fiasco.
Setting conditions by BNP a dialogue cannot be taken place or yield any fruitful result. Who will set the terms and conditions before dialogue? Only people of the country will set terms and conditions. The people of Bangladesh have not given any authority to anyone to set terms for holding dialogue.
BNP put forward four conditions - resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, dissolution of parliament, resignation of the Election Commission and holding polls under a non-party caretaker government.
The party’s (BNP) target
is not to take part in
elections rather they
want to foil the election
and make it questionable
The US pre-election assessment mission during the visit here recommended dialogue between political parties in order to hold a credible, inclusive and peaceful election in Bangladesh.
However, we always welcome constructive suggestions from foreign friends, but there is nothing to make a fuss over it. Simultaneously, we want to say clearly that we do not want any country – “does not matter who” - to interfere in our internal affairs. Bangladesh is an independent and a sovereign country. Country’s people have achieved the independence through a war. No country needs to get concerned regarding our next parliamentary poll and internal matters as Bangladesh is now a mature country.
Therefore, other countries in the world do not need to give prescriptions to Bangladesh on democracy, human rights and justice as these are deeply rooted in the country’s history.
Bangladesh faced obstacles and conspiracies time and again, but it has successfully overcome these. So, still many obstacles and conspiracies continue because when a country makes rapid progress, many may not tolerate it.
When the government wants BNP’s full-strength participation in the national election, the BNP looks for excuses to flee from the polls. The party’s (BNP) target is not to take part in elections rather they want to foil the election and make it questionable.
BNP leaders’ comments give the impression that they want guarantee of wining and if they get it, they will join polls otherwise they would not do so. It seems like someone coming from outside will take the BNP to power through the cradle. But, it is impossible to assume power by lobbying foreigners. Once upon a time, BNP 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.
The foreign and home ministries have obtained many documents and papers about how much money BNP paid to the US lobby firms over the last seven years.
Besides, BNP leaders are going to their local and foreign masters and lodging complaints against the Awami League government. Since its foundation, BNP has been doing politics in the country with support from anti-liberation forces and its foreign lobbyists who had opposed the country’s liberation war in 1971.’
BNP must drop dialogue thought setting terms and conditions.
