Country has become a ‘factory to produce rich people’: Menon

Workers Party of Bangladesh, a major part of the ruling alliance, yesterday criticised Awami League's position on four fundamental principles of Bangladesh -- which were introduced by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

The criticism came at a seminar titled "Bangabandhu and the Four Fundamental Principles" on the occasion of Mujib Year at Engineers' Institution of Bangladesh (IEB) in the capital.

Party leaders alleged that AL shifted its stand from those basic principles -- democracy, socialism, secularism and nationalism.

They also raised question as to why the audio of one of the speeches by Bangabandhu was playing in the parliament with some words missing from it.

Bangabandhu Chair Professor of Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP) Syed Anwar Hossain mentioned the fundamental principles as "songs of the old days" in his keynote paper.

"Bangabandhu returned to the country on January 10, 1972 and said that the foundation of the state would be democracy, socialism and secularism. Later, by adding nationalism, the four basic principles were fixed," said Anwar Hossain, also a retired professor of Dhaka University's history department.

He said a state should not have any religion, state-religion and secularism cannot be in the constitution together. But the government does not speak about it; they have problems talking about the issue, he added.

"No one has the right to edit Bangabandhu's speeches," he said.

"Secularism and socialism -- these words were missing from the audio of a speech by Bangabandhu in the special session of the parliament of Mujib Borsho. We raised the question and found no answer," said Fazle Hossain Badsha, a lawmaker and general secretary of the Workers Party.

"Who is responsible for cutting Bangabandhu's speech? I asked the question in the parliament. The Speaker had to answer it, but she did not respond," said Badsha.

Party president Rashed Khan Menon presided over the seminar virtually.

"Bangladesh has become a developing country but the extreme inequality in the society not only questions this development, but also interrupts it," he said.

He said Bangabandhu spoke of ending exploitation and inequality till his last breath, but Bangladesh has now become a "factory to produce rich people".

"If we can follow Bangabandhu's thoughts on how to run a state, Bangladesh can become an ideal state," said Menon.