In exactly one week Bangladesh will be heading for one of its most consequential polls on February 12. This will be the first parliamentary election since the overthrow of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a massive student-led protest during July-August 2024.
Speaking exclusively to StratNewsGlobal in Dhaka, Mahdi Amin, Adviser to Tarique Rahman, Chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), and the party’s Election Steering Committee Spokesperson, said “people of Bangladesh have rejected Awami League.
“If you see the mass uprising in 2024 it speaks volumes of the public sentiment. Awami League was committing human rights violations, enforced disappearances, extra-judicial killings.. So the interim government took a call,” said Amin, dressed in traditional kurta-pyjamas at BNP Central Election Office in Gulshan, Dhaka.
He said, “BNP carries a legacy. BNP carries an emotion. An emotion it evokes that comes through performance, through delivery in how to change people’s lives and how we can empower them. Under the leadership of Mr. Tarique Rahman this emotion resonates with aspiration.”
He described the elections of 2014, 2018 and 2024 as “flawed and rigged.”
“People want an election where they can actually vote, exercise their democratic rights, which in turn will make sure that the government that comes will be accountable, will serve the people, will ensure human rights, will ensure rule of law, will insure freedom of expression, and will bring about those changes that will truly empower the people through inclusive development, not through corruption-ridden projects, but to give people a voice so that their problems are solved, the communities thrive economically, politically, socially, and to ensure that the security system of the country improves.”
A Cambridge graduate turned political strategist, Amin has been instrumental in giving shape to the party’s political programme and is widely regarded as a “next generation leader”.
According to Amin, the BNP has clearly defined policies in every sector – education, healthcare, agriculture, employment, urbanisation, economy and finance, among others.
He said the BNP’s 31-point charter has acted as a major foundation based on which changes have been taking place in the country and also acts as the basis for the July 2024 charter.
Pragmatic India Ties
Amin said if the BNP comes to power in Bangladesh, their administration will seek to have a “pragmatic and sustainable” relationship with India, being Dhaka’s closest neighbour.
“This will be in the interest of both the nations. So we would love to have a very good relationship with India built up on equity, fairness, and justice, where both the nations focus on mutual interest, mutual sovereignty and forge people-to-people ties,” he added.
Tarique Rahman wants to forge people-to-people linkages and expand the bilateral ties across all sectors of trade, business, culture and education.
“We want to have that relationship to be reciprocal ensuring that both nations have security that’s protected and sovereignty that’s protected and all the transactions that serve mutual interest,” said Amin.
