Rizvi calls Moudud acrobat, renegade
BNP leader Rizvi Ahmed yesterday ripped into his party colleague Moudud Ahmed for his new book, "Bangladesh: Emergency and the Aftermath 2007-2008", in which the former law minister wrote that the release of BNP chief Khaleda Zia's two sons was her top priority during the last caretaker government.
Describing Moudud as an "acrobat" and a "renegade", Rizvi said a book written by a man without an ideology would not matter much to them.
Meanwhile, Moudud said he had expressed his personal observations in his book, and it had no links to his party's politics.
The book shed light on the relations between BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami, and Khaleda's role to save her two sons from the military-backed caretaker government.
On page 287, Moudud said, "For Khaleda Zia, the fate of her two sons was paramount. She was not willing to proceed with the military for any dialogue without the release of Tarique, the eldest son holding a senior post in the party, her most trusted hand to lead the party and the government in future and Arafat Rahman Koko, the youngest son engaged more in business than politics."
Moudud wrote the book while in jail during the Fakhruddin Ahmed-led caretaker government in 2007-2008. It was launched Saturday.
Yesterday, Rizvi blasted Moudud while addressing a press briefing at the party's Nayapaltan office to give reactions about Supreme Court's dismissal of Khaleda's two appeals in Zia Orphanage Trust and Zia Charitable Trust graft cases and the arrest order for its acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
Rizvi said, "Moudud Ahmed is a senior leader. I can't express the party's views now. But I believe his comments are not correct. If there was any relation between BNP and militants, why did he not resign from the cabinet of the last BNP government?"
Rizvi said if Khaleda wanted to save her sons, she could have sent them abroad earlier, but she rejected the instructions of the caretaker government.
He said he could not understand whether Moudud wrote the book to make anyone happy or save himself or his house. Rizvi said that whenever his personal issues came, Moudud made this kind of comments.
In response to Rizvi's remarks, Moudud told a press briefing on the SC premises, “I write books as a political scientist, not as a politician. I try to write history of the country authentically in all my books”.
He said the book mentioned the reasons behind his party's failures. BNP will come to power again, and it can learn from the mistakes cited in the book, he said.
Moudud said he described in his book how the present government came to power with the assistance of the Moen U Ahmed and Fakhruddin-led government. The book states how votes were rigged in the 2008 parliamentary election, he said.
The senior leader said he wrote how the last caretaker government had tortured politicians and violated human rights in 2007 and 2008, and how they hatched a conspiracy to keep BNP away and bring Awami League to power.
“I felt that my party leaders would appreciate me and Rizvi would congratulate me, and the present government would be displeased and even would send me to jail for writing such a book. But, the result is the reverse,” he said.
Moudud said Rizvi would repent if he went through the whole book.
About his house, Moudud said the government started the process to evict him from his house in 2012, while he began writing the book six to seven years back; so, these were not connected.
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