Launching his election campaign with the slogan “Not Delhi, not Pindi, not any other country—Bangladesh comes first,” BNP Chairperson Tarique Rahman said the party believes the people of the country are the sole source of all political power and therefore is committed to improving their fortunes.
Tarique Rahman said, “Some people say, ‘You have seen this one, you have seen that one- now take a look at this one.’ Dear brothers and sisters, during the 1971 liberation war—through which this country, our beloved motherland, was liberated at the cost of millions of lives—we have seen the roles played by many.”
“The people of Bangladesh have already seen those, because of whose roles, millions of our brothers were martyred and hundreds of thousands of our mothers and sisters was violated, for what they are,” he added.
At his first election rally, held today, Thursday at the Government Alia Madrasa ground in Sylhet city, Tarique Rahman sought the support and prayers of the people while urging everyone to ensure victory for the sheaf of paddy symbol.
Stating that the BNP wants to make every citizen of the country self-reliant, he said, “We must unite against this disbelief, this recklessness and this falsehood. We must stay with the movement to take back Bangladesh. We have freed the country from autocracy; now we must establish the rights of the people. It is not enough to secure only the right to vote or the right to speak—people must be empowered to stand on their own feet.”
At one point of his speech, he asked the packed crowd, “Who owns the Kaaba Sharif? Who owns this world we see? Who owns the sun and the stars? Who owns heaven? Who owns hell?” When the audience responded in unison, “Allah,” Tarique Rahman said, “You have all testified that Allah owns the world, heaven and the Kaaba. If Allah is the owner, does anyone else have the power to give it? They do not. So what does that mean?”
“Even before the election, a party is saying it will give this and that, promising tickets. If someone speaks of giving what does not belong to them, is that not shirk (polytheism)? Allah alone is the owner. Allah has authority over everything. So if they are deceiving you even before the election, you can imagine how they will deceive you after it,” he added.
