Main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party issued what it said a statement ”contradicting” to a report published by the Dhaka Tribune on September 28 under the headline of “BNP drafts election manifesto.”
The party, which leads the 18-party alliance, claimed that the report was “false, fabricated and motivated.”
Our reply
The report was written based on an initial draft prepared by a think-tank comprising several pro-nationalist intellectuals and former bureaucrats. They presented the draft to party Chairperson Khaleda Zia on Thursday night at her Gulshan office.
Acting secretary general of the party Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was also present during the presentation.
The think tank initially proposed the title “Rupakalpa 2030,” roughly translated as “Vision 2030” in English. Mahfuz Ullah, a senior journalist, gave the presentation to the party chief.
Contacted, Mahfuz Ullah, also secretary general of Centre for Sustainable Development, denied his involvement with preparing and presenting the draft.
However, Khaleda has reportedly disagreed with the title apparently because it was too similar to “Vision 2021” which the ruling Awami League had coined before the last national elections.
The BNP chief reportedly gave a number of corrections to the draft manifesto and had asked the think tank to send a copy to her son Tarique Rahman, the senior vice-chairman of the BNP, now living in London.
Standing Committee member RA Gani, Vice-Chairman Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury, Adviser to the BNP Chairperson Sabihuddin Ahmed and several bureaucrats were present in the programme.
This correspondent could not contact Mirza Fakhrul and RA Gani despite repeated attempts.
However, Prof Pias Karim, a teacher of Brac University, who was present at the meeting, told this correspondent on Friday night that the BNP chairperson had listened to the presentation with a great passion and that she agreed with almost all the points.
He suggested that the “Vision 2030” was very much achievable “if the country gets a perfect leadership.”
The Dhaka Tribune has accessed a hard copy of the presentation. It was held for nearly 40 minutes as the programme started at 10pm. One of the senior party leaders provided the copy. So there is no question about the report.