Revoking Zia's Title Only to Stigmatize Govt: BNP

BNP senior leader Gayeshwar Chandra Roy on Monday said the government will gain 'nothing, but a big stigma' if it revokes Ziaur Rahman’s gallantry title Bir Uttam.

Speaking at a protest rally, he also warned that the government’s hands will be ‘burnt into ashes’ with public wrath if it tries to touch Zia's title out of political vengeance.

"They (govt) can’t understand how big a stigma they're trying to paint on their foreheads…there're some people like Sheikh Hasina who like to gain stigma,'' he observed.

BNP's Dhaka district unit arranged the programme on the ground floor of BNP's Nayapaltan central office in protest against the Jatiya Muktijoddha Council's (Jamuka's) move to revoke Bir Uttam title conferred on party founder Ziaur Rahman for his contributions to the Liberation War. 

Gayeshwar, a BNP standing committee member, said their party should come up with proper action programmes in the days to come to ‘restore’ democracy and people’s ownership of the country.

''This's the People's Republic of Bangladesh and people are the owners of this country. We've to move in the right direction with action programmes to restore the ownership of people.

We'll surely face many obstacles, but we’ve to reach our goal of overcoming all those'' he observed.

The BNP leader criticised law enforcers for what he said their repressive acts against the opposition leaders and activists and urged them to play a neutral role as the servants of people. 

Gayeshwar described the current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina-led government as a puppet of India and said it has created a scope for the neighbouring country to exploit Bangladesh. ''That's why India has been trying to keep Sheikh Hasina in power for a long time so that her government can serve its interests.''  

BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, joint secretaries general Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal, Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel and publicity affairs secretary Shaheed Uddin Chowdhury Anee, among others, spoke at the programme.