Khaleda deserves prison, not dialogue: Information Minister Inu

Senior Correspondent  bdnews24.com

Published: 2015-03-15 18:57:44.0 BdST Updated: 2015-03-15 19:24:33.0 BdST

Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu has trashed BNP chief Khaleda Zia’s call for speedy dialogue over interim polls saying that she deserves a place in Kashimpur prison instead of a seat on the table for dialogue.

He told an official briefing in Secretariat on Sunday :, “ Immediate polls are not an issue in the country. The key problem lies with the arson, violence, anarchy and militancy.
“…Khaleda Zia’s place is not on the dialogue table but rather in Kashimpur Prison.” 
The BNP chief has been staying in her Gulshan office continuously after calling for an indefinite blockade from Jan 5.
In a press briefing on Friday, Khaleda, for the first time in more than two months, clarified her party’s stance blaming the government for the political stalemate.
She said dialogue for an interim poll was the only option the 20-Party could offer to the ruling government and announced to continue agitation until they conceded.
“Everyone was hoping she would have a change of heart. By declaring to continue the agitation, she has severely disappointed the people.”
The minister also blasted Khaleda for giving a speech laced with false information and smacking of stubbornness.
He also pulled her up for not facing journalists after the brief saying she was ‘scared’ of being questioned.
The information minister also dismissed her call for dialogue saying it can only be considered if it aimed strengthening our democracy or the electoral process.
" It would be meaningless it was just to find an ‘ad-hoc formula’ for a single poll," he added.
“Khaleda Zia did not present any concrete suggestion to develop or strengthen the electoral system, nor can she.”
The Question of Arrest
A Dhaka court on Feb 25 issued an arrest warrant for BNP chief Khaleda Zia after she failed to appear for consecutive hearings in two graft cases.
However, she has not been arrested since the court order ‘did not reach’ the police.
The government has been saying that ‘law will take its own course’. BNP and 20-Party leaders have claimed the delay was because the warrant was illegal.
“There are a number of crucial charges against her. These matters are under trial. … We will implement the steps taken by the court,” the minister said.
Prime minister’s information affairs advisor Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury said, “Surrendering is showing respect for the law, it is Khaleda Zia’s responsibility. The court will run as it is, the government is responsible for aiding the court, and it will do just that."
The minister went on to blast Khaleda for over 100 deaths that have occurred in the 20-Party agitation over the last 67 days.
He said the deaths were result of Khaleda’s direct orders to cause violence and that cases over the deaths and killings were being prepared. 
“The court will take steps after these reach them,” Inu said.
He also trashed Khaleda’s claim the government was orchestrating the violence and blaming it on the 20-Party.
“Her party men are being caught red-handed ordering violence . Cases filed after all these… how can those be false?”

Editor's Note Of The Daily Star

      Bangladesh stands at forty three today and while it is a time for celebration, there is also need for introspection as we observe our Victory Day. Freedom came across the land, across villages and towns after much bloodletting, pillage and plunder and at a massive human cost in lost and shattered lives. A marauding Pakistani occupation army let loose its war machine among an unarmed populace over the course of nine months costing us three million dead, two hundred thousand Bangalee women violated and a campaign that killed off some of the brightest of our intelligentsia on the eve of victory.

Though our hearts are heavy at the price paid for freedom, it is also a day to look back upon the stories of freedom fighters, both Bangalee and foreign who took it upon themselves to fight for and in many instances, die for the ideals that drove us to seek independence. We recall the visionary leadership of the time as we acknowledge the assistance of India in caring for ten million refugees seeking shelter away from the massacre. But most of all, we will never forget the resoluteness of 70million Banaglees who never wavered from the belief that the cause of freedom was a just one which they strove to achieve in a do-or-die struggle. This morning we recall the sacrifices that went into the making of our finest hour and the eternal source of inspiration that we will return to year after year. It devolves upon the present generation and those to come to live up to the aspirations generated by our victory in 1971.

Remembering our language martyrs By Mahfuz Anam

        Ekushey February provides a soul-stirring occasion to reflect on the long road we have travelled since some of our brave young men died in defence of the mother tongue in 1952. On the one hand, we go back in time to recreate within our collective consciousness the circumstances that led to the struggle for ensuring a rightful place for the Bangla language. On the other, we fondly link to our umbilical cord our cultural heritage and self-identity. An important message which emerges from 21 February 1952 is that it heralded a new struggle for the achievement of our cultural and political rights. And as the subsequent years till the attainment of liberation demonstrate, we did the job remarkably well.

As we take the slow march to the Shaheed Minar this morning, or offer silent prayers for the martyrs of Ekushey at home, let us resolve that the dreams inherent in the struggle of 1952 -- one of democracy and human dignity -- will be realised soon for all of us to be able to make our humble contributions, individually as well as collectively, to the building of a happy, prosperous future for Bangladesh. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the young men, some known but many unknown, whose lives were cut short at their prime in 1952 in valiant defence of our culture, so that we would be able to laugh and cry and share our joys and sorrows in the very language that our mothers used to sing lullabies to us when we were children as did their mothers to them.