DHAKA, Dec 15, 2022 (BSS) - Prime Minister and Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina today said BNP plays ducks and drakes with the election and people's voting rights side by side pushing the country behind whenever they come to power. 
 
"Whenever BNP assumed power, they played the ducks and drakes with the elections and people's voting rights and this is its character," she said. 

She also said BNP does it as it is not a party of the masses. "So, they don't care for the people as they consider power as something to enjoy and a chance of looting," she added.
 
The premier made the remark while addressing as the chief guest the triennial national council of the Bangladesh Jubo Mohila League (BJML), an affiliated body of the AL, at the historic Suhrawardy Udyan.
 
Referring to statistics of various developments carried out between the AL and BNP government, she said, "The trend of development continues. But, the development backtracked whenever the BNP came to power."
 
She said her government elevated the education rate to 65 percent from 45 and increased electricity generation to 4300MW from 3200MW after assuming power for the first time in 1996.

But the education ratio got down to 45 percent and electricity generation reduced to 32,00MW when BNP came to power for the second time in 2001, she said. 
 
"BNP can only develop itself after opening Hawa Bhaban and Khawa Bhaban. They can do nothing for the welfare of the country and its people. For that reason the people have boycotted them time and again," she added. 
 
The prime minister said the people know that their fate will only be changed whenever Awami League comes to power and it had helped achieve the country's independence under the leadership of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. 
 
Road Transport and Bridges Minister and General Secretary of the Awami League Obaidul Quader addressed at the function as the special guest. 
 
President of the Jubo Mohila League Nazma Akter presided over the council while its General Secretary Apu Ukil conducted it and presented the organisational report.
 
Earlier, the prime minister opened the council by hoisting the national flag and releasing pigeons, the symbol of peace and balloons. 
 
She later witnessed a colourful cultural programme starting with playing the party song of the BJML. 
 
A one minute silence was observed to show profound respect to the martyrs of the 1971 Liberation War, August 15, 1975 and all the democratic and progressive movements at the council. 
 
Leaders, activists, councillors and delegates from across the country thronged the conference venue in thousands with colourful festoons, placards and banners to make the council a grand success. 
 
The second and last council of the Bangladesh Jubo Mohila League, which was founded on July 6 in 2002, was held on March 11, 2017.
 

Sheikh Hasina said Khaleda Zia held the February 15, 1996, national election with a 1.23 crore fake voters' list, but the people and political parties of the country boycotted the farcical election.
 
"People not only rejected the election but also launched such a mass upsurge making Khaleda Zia compelled to leave the power within only one-and-a-half months," she added. 
 
Referring to the BNP-Jamaat government's inhuman torture including arson attacks, murders and rapes carried out against the leaders and activists of the Awami League and its front and associate bodies across the country soon after the 2001 national election, she said the tortures were similar to the Pakistani occupation forces on the unarmed people during the War of Liberation in 1971. 

 
She said BNP means torture, repression, misrule, looting, corruption and militancy in the country. 
 
"Women were raped indiscriminately after the 2001 election. From six-year-old girls to 60-year-old women were raped by the BNP-Jamaat's hoodlums," she continued.   
 
The Prime Minister also recalled the arson attacks of the BNP-Jamaat clique from 2013-2015 in the name of a movement to topple the Awami League government in which 500 people were burnt to death and over 3,000 suffered burn injuries alongside damaging and burning thousands of vehicles. 
 
"Khaleda Zia had announced a nationwide strike from her Gulshan office and her movement means burning people to the death," she said. 
 
The Awami League President said her party does not believe in revenge, so they did nothing to the BNP-Jamaat men.
 
"We didn't take revenge against them (BNP-Jamaat men). We don't take revenge. We have given the focus on carrying out the development of the country," she said. 
 
Referring to the BNP-Jamaat's repression and limitless corruption that invited the emergency government to the country in 2007, she said, "I know they (BNP-Jamaat) had many plans regarding the date 'December 10'."
 
Recalling the contribution of Jubo Mohila League to her release from jail during the emergency government, the Prime Minister said they had first started a signature campaign and collected signatures of two lakh people to realise their demand. 
 
In this connection, she also said that Dhaka City Awami League had collected signatures of 25 lakh people at that time and the caretaker government was compelled to free her in response to the movement. 
 
She said Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had introduced a 10-per cent quota for women in the public services and made education free for women as he wanted to empower women economically. 
 
Describing various measures taken by her government for the empowerment of the women following the footsteps of the Father of the Nation, she said they have taken initiatives in recruiting women in the army, navy and air forces, Border Guard Bangladesh, police and other government agencies. 
 
But, she said that the BNP-Jamaat government did nothing for women's empowerment, adding, "They had not only cancelled the women's policy but also snatched away women's rights." 
  
The Awami League Chief asked the Jubo Mohila League leaders and activists to study the book "Amar Dekha Noya Chin (New China as I Saw) written by Bangabandhu in which he talked about women empowerment.  
 
She asked them to stay beside the people going to their own localities across the country being inspired by the ideal of the Father of the Nation. 
 
The Prime Minister said her government has been working tirelessly to implement "Vision-2041" aimed at transforming the country into a developed, prosperous and Smart Bangladesh by 2041, maintaining the status of a developing nation attained by implementing her party's "Vision-2021''.