PM asks expats to counter BNP-Jamaat’s propaganda
“The BNP-Jamaat clique is out to tarnish Bangladesh’s image by orchestrating conspiracies and carrying out false propaganda against the country,” PM’s speech writer Md Nazrul Islam said quoting her as telling the reception in the Finnish capital.
He said the premier asked particularly the expatriate Awami Leaguers to “reply befittingly” to the propaganda as All European Awami League and Finland Awami League organised the community reception in her honour at Hotel Kamp in Helsinki.
Sheikh Hasina, now in Finland on a five-day tour on the last leg of her tri-nation visit that earlier took her to Japan and Saudi Arabia,, said the BNP-Jamaat were financially well off as they siphoned off a huge amount of money abroad that they earned illegally.
She said they were now using the money to appoint lobbyists to conduct false propaganda against the country.
The prime minister also directed the expatriate Awami League leaders and workers to project Bangladesh’s tremendous development abroad adding “those who will be successful in brightening the image of the country will be evaluated properly in the party”.
She suggested them building up good rapports with public representatives of the countries they were currently staying to heighten Bangladesh image, negating the propaganda.
At the outset of her speech, the prime minister extended her Eid greetings to the countrymen and expatriate Bangladeshis and noted with happiness that tens of thousands of people celebrated the Eid smoothy rejoining their near ones at their ancestral home.
She said the people were able to make almost jam-free travel on the roads in their Eid journey, while better arrangements for rail, river and air communication have been made for the home-bound passengers.
Sheikh Hasina said her government was working untiringly for the development of the country, and the people started getting its benefits.
“We’re working tirelessly to materialise Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s dream of establishing a hunger-and-poverty-free Sonar Bangla” as he struggled throughout her life to bring smiles on the faces of the distressed people, she said.
The prime minister said Bangladesh was turned into a food surplus country when the Awami League government assumed office in 1996 after long 21 years but when the BNP-Jamaat nexus came to power in 2001,” the country became a food-deficit county again”.
The prime minister said that the BNP-Jamaat alliance came to power at that time by giving a ‘muchleka’ (undertaking) to sell Bangladesh’s gas to a country.
Referring to unbridled terrorism, militancy and corruption during the BNP-Jamaat rule, Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh became champion in graft for five times when BNP-Jamaat was in power.
She said the BNP-Jamaat misrule and misdeeds eventfully invited the 1/11 political changeover installing a military-backed interim government for two years.
The prime minister recalled the expatriates’ cooperation for her return home during that interim regime and their support for the campaign to restore democracy in Bangladesh and acknowledged their contributions to the country’s economic development. _BSS
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