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BOGRA, Feb 26 (UNB): Leader of the Opposition in Parliament and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina insisted Sunday that the government would have to reform the caretaker government system and the election commission (EC) otherwise people would force them to do it through mass movement.
"The Prime Minister must spell out her decision about our reform proposals to establish people's constitutional rights…Next elections will have to be held after reforms," she told reporters during a stopover at Bogra Parjatan Motel on way back from her three-day party tour of Dinajpur and Rangpur.
Hasina wondered why the government is so hesitant to implement the reforms aimed at ensuring free and fair elections. She said that she had placed the reform proposals in parliament taking into account interest of the people.
Asked what if the government did not concede to the opposition demand, she said people would realise it through mass movement. "People are already angry against the government," she said adding, "Don't they understand the consequence if once the people are called out?"
Alleging that the government has politicised the administration to rig the elections, the AL president said people must remain united and alert so their "votes are not snatched away" by the government.
On Islamic militancy, Hasina said before arresting the militants, the Prime Minister and Jamaat Chief Matiur Rahman Nizami should be booked as she said they have created militants who are operating at their behest. "After creating the militants," she said, "the government is now arresting one or two to earn so-called appreciation."
Criticising the decision of raise in diesel prices by Tk one for the northern region, she said the government wanted to separate northern Bangladesh from the rest of the country but retreated in the face of strong protest by the opposition. "People of the northern region must not forget this attitude of the government towards them," she observed.
Hasina said when people are in an extremely difficult situation, the government is busy in making money ignoring the public sufferings.
"The government do not understand anything but money," she said in a sharp criticism of freestyle price spirals, adding that the people in power pocketed millions (crores) of taka in the process of increasing prices of essentials.
On her way to Dhaka, she addressed wayside rawllies at Ambari of Tirir Bandar and Fulbari Bazar.
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