Low turnout indicates the pulse of the people : Rizvi

BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Monday (15 January) predicted the current government would not be able to cling to power with the help of its foreign masters.

"Sheikh Hasina thinks that she'll stay in power with the patronage of her masters. Those days are over," he said.

Speaking at a doa and milad mahfil, the BNP leader said the country's people showed 'signs of victory' by boycotting the national election on January 7, resulting in low turnout. "You (govt) should grasp the pulse of the people from it."

Jatiyatabdi Mohila Dal arranged the programme on the ground floor of the BNP's Nayapaltan central office seeking the recovery of ailing party chairperson Khaleda Zia.

Rizvi said the people are now in a movement and they will be there on the streets in the coming days to make the programme a success.

Mentioning that Bangladesh has a history of protesting against injustice and overthrowing autocratic leaders eventually, Rizvi predicted Hasina's fate would be no different: "Sheikh Hasina's government will also be washed away..."

The BNP leader said the government shows the Padma Bridge and flyovers as signs of its development, "while poor people sell their children to feed themselves". He expects the people to be there on the streets again, to realise their demands and reclaim their rights.

Rizvi slammed Law Minister Anisul Huq for disputing a statement of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, that contained a warning that Bangladesh's democracy must not turn 'cosmetic'.

The law minister claimed Turk's statement in its entirety may have been uninformed.

"He (Huq) is a minister of Awami League government because he can lie. If he could tell the truth, Awami League would not have made him minister," he concluded.

Meanwhile, Rizvi along with BNP leaders and activists brought out a procession in the city's Shantinagar area demanding the unconditional release of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and other jailed leaders and workers of the party.