Prime Minister and Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina on Sunday said whenever Awami League comes to power, the fate of the people is changed as her party’s only motto is to work for the welfare of the people.
She further said her party never flees, rather it works with the people for their betterment, calling upon the countrymen to vote the party to build a developed, prosperous and “Smart Bangladesh” by 2041.
“They (BNP leaders) who are saying that the Awami League will not get the chance of fleeing, I want to clear them one thing that the Awami League never flees, but their (BNP) leaders flee,” she said.
She said this while addressing as the chief guest a grand rally that turned into a human sea with participation of tens of thousands of people organised by Rajshahi city and district units of the AL at the historic Madrasha ground.
At the rally, the premier also inaugurated 26 projects including seven of the Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC), worth over Tk1,333 crore and laid foundation stones of six other projects involving over Tk375 crore.
The Prime Minister said the BNP-Jamaat clique is saying many things and giving an ultimatum to her party saying that the Awami League would not get the scope to flee.
Referring to her return to the country twice ignoring the red eyes of the then governments in 1981 and 2007, she asked the BNP-Jamaat clique who wants to flee and said the AL never flees and it looks behind.
“I returned to the country thinking about the people of the country,” she added.
The AL president said her party is working with the people for their wellbeing as the organisation was formed at the hands of the Father of the Nation.
AL General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, AL Presidium Members Advocate Jahangir Kabir Nanak, Abdur Rahman and Rajshahi City Corporation Mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton, AL Joint General Secretaries Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud and Mahbub-ul Alam Hanif, Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder, State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shariar Alam, State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak, AL organising secretary SM Kamal, AL central working committee member Nurul Islam Thandu and BCL president Saddam Hossain also spoke.
Acting President of Rajshahi City Awami League Mohammad Ali Kamal and General Secretary Dablu Sarker respectively presided over and moderated the meeting.
Sheikh Hasina came down heavily on the BNP leaders as they’re vowing to wage a war against corruption. “With whom you want to struggle against the graft as two of your top leaders, Khaleda Zia and Tarique Rahman, were sentenced in graft cases,” she asked.
“BNP’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman was sentenced in a corruption case and fled the country giving bond to the caretaker government in 2007 that he will never do politics,” she said and asked whether the BNP leaders had forgotten it.
The Prime Minister said then Prime Minister Khaleda Zia had siphoned off huge amounts of money abroad through her two sons ,Tarique Rahman and Koko, and her government has so far returned Tk 40 crore of the laundered money.
“Are BNP leaders able to answer it?” she questioned.
She said AL comes to power to give something to the people and the reality is that the masses get something if the party assumes power while the BNP comes to power to do every sort of crime that include carrying out murder, arson attacks, patronizing the killers alongside making their own fortunes.
The Prime Minister said the BNP-Jamaat clique burned people to death, torched public transports such as buses, trains and launches, and government offices in the name of movement.
“You (countrymen) have to think whether any human being can burn any person to death alive. ---they have such inhuman characters. It is the reality that they can’t tolerate any wellbeing of the Bangladeshi people,” she said.
The BNP-Jamaat alliance is now in hot pursuit to carry out propaganda at home and abroad, cashing in on the opportunity of being a Digital Bangladesh, she said, adding, “We have built “Digital Bangladesh’’ and they’re carrying out propaganda against our government using it.”
On the contrary, she said, the AL government has transformed Bangladesh into a developing nation from the least developed country by implementing the “Vision 2021”, and is now out to build a developed, prosperous and Smart Bangladesh by 2041.
The AL government always keeps its words, the Prime Minister said, referring to achieving the target of Vision-2041.
Sheikh Hasina thanked the people of Rajshahi for voting her party time and again and requested them to promise to vote for the AL again by raising their hands in the next general election to be held at the end of this year or the beginning of the next year.
The mammoth gathering in reply raised their hands and shouted that they will cast their votes in favour of the party’s election symbol ‘Boat’.
‘’Please cast your vote for the Boat to continue the journey towards development that will lead to building a developed, prosperous and Smart Bangladesh by 2041,’’ she said.
Briefly describing her government’s development schemes, the Prime Minister said the people are now getting a developing nation, food sufficient country, free vaccine, cash and other assistance during the Covid-19 pandemic and a country well-connected through road, rail, water and air ways.
The Prime Minister reminded the inhabitants of Rajshahi that her government has conducted huge development in Rajshahi in the last 14 years.
“Rajshahi was always neglected. My government has done massive development works in Rajshahi involving Tk 10,660 crore including Tk 4000 crore for the development of Rajshahi city till date since 2009,” she said.
The Prime Minister said today she inaugurated 26 projects worth over Tk1,333 crore and laid foundation stones of six other projects involving over Tk375 crore.
“I have given the development schemes as my gift to the people of Rajshahi,” she added.
The Prime Minister once again vowed to bring all the landless and homeless people under the government’s housing schemes free of cost so that none remains homeless and devoid of address.
She once again asked the countrymen to grow their own food bringing every inch of fallow land under cultivation to meet their own demand as the world is going through economic recession and food crisis.
