‘Why don’t they burn Indian saris of their wives?’

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has sought to know the numbers of Indian saris in possession of the wives of BNP leaders who have called for boycotting Indian products.

"Why are they [BNP leaders] not bringing those saris from their wives and burning those?" she told a discussion at the Awami League office in Dhaka's Tejgaon yesterday.

The ruling party organised the event on the occasion of the Independence and National Day.

Hasina, also the AL president, said the wives of the BNP leaders who would boycott Indian products should not wear Indian saris.

"I will believe they [BNP leaders] have truly boycotted Indian products only when they will burn all those saris," the premier said.

Talking about import of spices, onion, garlic and ginger from India, she said these Indian items should not be in the kitchens of those BNP leaders.

"They should cook food without using Indian spices…. They will have to answer whether they will be able to eat that food," the PM said.

About the Liberation War, Hasina questioned BNP founder Ziaur Rahman's loyalty during the war, reports UNB.

"[Mirza] Aslam Beg [then an army officer in Bangladesh] wrote a letter to Ziaur Rahman during the Liberation War expressing satisfaction at his activities. This raised the question whether Zia had fought for Bangladesh or for Pakistan."

Aslam Beg in that letter also said that Zia's wife and sons were fine at Dhaka Cantonment, the PM added.

"The question is if that person had proclaimed the country's independence, then why the Pakistanis took care of his wife and sons in the cantonment, and wrote a letter expressing satisfaction at his activities," she said.

The AL chief said the Liberation War was fought in 11 sectors of the country, but the sector led by Zia saw the highest number of killings of freedom fighters.

General Beg served as the chief of army staff of the Pakistan Army from 1988 until his retirement in 1991.

Regarding the proclamation of the independence on the night of March 25, 1971, Hasina said Bangabandhu's proclamation was relayed through wireless, but the history was distorted after his assassination.

She said that nowadays BNP leaders are searching for democracy, and one of its leaders claimed that AL leaders fled Bangladesh on March 25, 1971. "If that is true, then who fought the fight and who earned the victory."

The premier said that the elected public representatives of the 1970 elections formed the first ever government of independent Bangladesh with Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as president, Syed Nazrul Islam as vice-president and Tajuddin Ahmad as prime minister.

She said after the formation of the first-ever government of independent Bangladesh on April 17, 1971, it carried out the Liberation War.

Ziaur Rahman was a sector commander as a salaried person under that AL government, the PM added.

"They [BNP leaders] must not forget this fact. They must not forget that Ziaur Rahman was promoted from major to major general rank after independence."

Hasina said people rejected BNP for committing arson and killing.

"Those who were rejected by the people could not win elections in a democratic system. Now they are searching for democracy," she said.

Awami League advisory council member Amir Hossain Amu, presidium members Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Mosharraf Hossain, Abdur Razzaque and Shajahan Khan, and Health Affairs Secretary Rokeya Sultana, among others, were present.

On March 20, BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi at a press conference expressed solidarity with the campaign for boycotting Indian products. He threw his Indian shawl on the road in front of the BNP's Nayapaltan central office that day.

Some people, including online activists, called for the campaign in late January out of their grievances against India over the January 7 national polls.