“I have a plan,” Tarique Rahman told the lakhs who had come from all over Bangladesh to see their self-exiled leader, home for the first time after 17 years.
Was he invoking the late American civil rights leader Martin Luther King whose “I have a Dream” address in 1963, is seen as among the high points of the struggle for civil rights by the Black minority?
But Rahman, the acting leader of the BNP, disclosed little about his plan other than urging that all bury their differences and cooperate in building the country.
“Together we will work, together we will build our Bangladesh,” he said, thanking all those who had made this moment possible. “By the boundless mercy of Rabbul Alamin, today I have been able to return to my beloved motherland—through your prayers, and back among you.”
He compared last year’s August uprising against Sheikh Hasina to the 1971 war of liberation that saw “the blood of hundreds of thousands of martyrs” and the emergence of Bangladesh.
“On 5 August 2024 the students and the masses of this country, along with people from all walks of life … regardless of party affiliation, across all classes and professions, together protected the independence and sovereignty of this country on that day.”
Without naming Sheikh Mujibur Rahman the founder of Bangladesh, he described his assassination in Nov 1975 as “the country … saved from the clutches of hegemony through the sepoy–people’s uprising to protect it from domination.”
He referred to the “conspiracies of the conspirators” but took no names. He also called for a “safe Bangladesh”, saying that Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus all live in this country.
Three times he called for peace in Bangladesh and urged the younger generation to build “a strong democratic nation with a strong economic base.”
After addressing the crowds, Tarique Rahman left for Evercare Hospital where his mother and BNP leader Khaleda Zia, lies in critical condition.
