UNB, Dhaka: BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Friday said the economy of Bangladesh is no longer able to bear the brunt of coronavirus as around six crore people have already gone below the poverty line.
“The government wants to create a myth that Bangladesh is a role model of development among the countries in South East Asia and it’s a middle-income one. It’s totally a hoax. They’re still trying to establish this myth through propaganda,” he said during a virtual discussion.
The BNP leader said, “But the real situation is that now about six crore people in this country are below the poverty line. Now the country and its economy cannot bear the coronavirus onslaught. Two crore people have become poor anew.”
BNP’s national committee on celebrating the country’s Golden Jubilee arranged the discussion titled ‘President Ziaur Rahman’s role in expanding the private sector and the free market economy’.
Fakhrul alleged that though the national economy is now in a bad shape and many people are becoming poor due to the coronavirus, some people are still amassing thousands of crores of taka through looting and corruption.
“The current government has destroyed the banking sector and the stock market. Money laundering has reached such a stage that now the government itself is saying it needs to be controlled. Corruption has engulfed the entire country. We saw an allegation of corruption has also been raised against the former ACC chairman,” Fakhrul observed.
He alleged that the current government has been disrupting all the normal processes of building the nation as it is trying to turn Bangladesh into a dependent country in a planned way.
“The country is now under the grip of just one person, one family, and a party like that of 1972-75. People saw at that time (1972-75) how ruling party men indulged in plundering and corruption,” the BNP leader said.
Fakhrul recalled their party founder Ziaur Rahman’s rule in reviving the economy and developing the country by uniting people. “There was a perception among the western and developed countries during 1972 that Bangladesh would become a failed state and basket case. But Ziaur Rahman brought it up as a country with a potential economy, creating an opportunity to build a potential nation.”
He urged BNP leaders and activists to follow the path of Zia to restore democracy and free the country’s 18 crore people from the “grasp of misrule” through united efforts.
