By Staff Correspondent, Dhaka – The acting chairman of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Tarique Rahman has called upon the youths and students to play their parts to resist fascism and extremism in Bangladesh.
“The youth and students must remain alert and play a conscious role in preventing the rise or return of fascism, extremism or radicalism in the future days of Bangladesh,” Rahman told a crowd of hundreds of thousands of activists of the BNP’s student wing Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal in Dhaka.
The BNP leader joined the rally, organized to commemorate the first anniversary of the ouster of Sheikh Hasina government at Shahbag crossing, through video conferencing from London. Leaders and activists from across the country joined the Chhatra Dal rally.
Facing a mass uprising, former prime minister Sheikh Hasina stepped down and fled to India on August 5, 2024.
Rahman, who has been exiled to London since 2008, also called upon the crowd to cast their vote in favour of Sheaf of Paddy, the election symbol of BNP, in the next parliamentary elections likely to be held between February and April next year.
He also urged them to help his party rebuild Bangladesh in line with the dreams of last year’s uprising that ousted an authoritarian regime.
Rahman presented his party’s various plans before the younger and said BNP wants to build Bangladesh the way a mother envisions it with the united efforts of both the young and the old.
He said that the young voters have the greatest opportunity to cast their vote for the first time to rebuild the nation. He said that these young people, despite being voters, could not exercise their right to franchise in the past elections and the then autocratic regime snatched away their right to vote.
He estimated that nearly 40 million voters were added to the electoral roll in the past 15 years. The total voters in Bangladesh is more or less 130 million.
“Taking advantage of this opportunity, we want the support and cooperation of everyone, including the young voters who were deprived of their rights over the past decade and a half during the rule of the fugitive autocratic ruler, to implement the plan adopted by BNP to build a self-reliant Bangladesh,” he said.
Rahman made an appeal to all students and the younger generation to spread his new election slogan: “Let your first vote be for the Sheaf of Paddy.”
