Like immature boy Joy talks

Criticising prime minister's son Sajeeb Wazed Joy for his remarks on former president Ziaur Rahman, the BNP has asked him to refrain from speaking like an “immature boy”.

“New generation leader Joy was born under the security of the Pakistan occupation army in 1971. He spent most of his time in India and the USA. This immature boy is now questioning whether Ziaur Rahman was a freedom fighter,” said BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir yesterday.

The BNP spokesperson made the comments while addressing a discussion titled “Shaheed Zia and Democracy” at the Jatiya Press Club. Bangladesh Sammilita Peshajibi Parishad, a platform of pro-BNP-Jamaat professionals, organised the programme to mark the “National Revolution and Solidarity Day”.

“I personally don't want to say anything about you [Joy] as you are very junior to me. I just want to tell you to please stop speaking like an immature boy,” Fakhrul said.

Addressing a seminar in a city hotel on Friday, Joy, also the ICT adviser to PM Sheikh Hasina, termed BNP a party of razakars, and said the name of Ziaur Rahman, founder of the BNP, should be excluded from the freedom fighters' list. 

Reacting sharply, Fakhrul said it was Zia for whom the rebirth of the Awami League was possible.

“Please speak on an issue after gathering detailed knowledge about it. Otherwise, people won't like you as a leader of the younger generation,” he said.

Mentioning that former minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui had said Joy as the PM's ICT adviser gets “2 lakh dollar per month”, the BNP leader added that people now wanted to know whether Latif had lost his job for his comments against Joy or for hurting people's religious sentiments.