Muhammad Abdur Rahim Chowdhury

The author is a proponent of peaceful resolution of national and regional political crisis, and founder of Bangladesh Oikya Party After Sheikh Hasina's fall in the wake of the students’ movement on August 5 and with the formation of an interim government under the leadership of Yunus, we countrymen have expected that a peaceful and stable environment will be created in the country and the country will move forward properly in reaching the desired goal of an developed country.

Dr. Yunus-led government has succeeded in some areas, though not as expected. But we expect success from Mr. Yunus like Malaysia's Mahathir Mohammad or Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew. We do not think that he is in any way inferior to them. Man proves his worth by his works. But seeing his work pattern in the last few months, we can't be so confident. This is not supposed to happen. Aren't someone in the government conspiring to fail him? If there is a ghost to eat mustard, it should be chased first. He himself and his council must be 100% honest and tactful. They must be free from all forms of active and passive corruption.

In the changing situation, the failure of Yunus government means the danger of the country, which had always been a fear regarding our sovereignty during Sheikh Hasnia's tenure. And to save the country from danger, Dr Yunus will have to take the country ahead with care by suppressing all types of conspiracies. Yunus's alternative is currently no one and so Dr. Yunus should not be failed. We patriotic students and people can't let Yunus get failed.

Those who are plotting to fail Dr. Yunus, be it the Awami League or the BNP or the administration or the students, no matter who they are, they have to be suppressed with a strong hand. There is no alternative to zero tolerance. Showing any form of relaxation in this field means a lack of patriotism. If anyone has a shortage of patriotism in running the state, they have no right to be in power. Then the Yunus government has to do is to build the national unity. If there is no national unity, the country will not advance. India has also been a hindrance to the creation of our national unity. India may be doing this for a fearful reason. I am presenting the following suggestions for building national unity.

The root is real of everything. Extremism is created if the person who follows his religion or ideals, who thinks it is right, remains in the original way, and is forced to move away from that path. When they remain in the original, no objection should be made, but they cannot be made to do any harm to the public in any other way or opinion.

What is saddening is the fact that in India and Bangladesh, there is a tendency by some people of different groups to harm other groups. In this area, India is ahead, while Bangladesh is lagging behind. I am calling on the government to take appropriate measures so that no one can make communal comments.

Some of our people consider India as a threat, and if they continue to act in this way, regional instability is likely to occur. Bangladesh must do whatever it takes to restore its independence. If any anti-India activity is carried out in Bangladesh, it will create an environment of more torture on minorities in India.

India will continue to threat Bangladesh. Then Bangladesh will lean on Pakistan and China to fight back. It may bring unrest when countries like Israel will take its advantage. For the sake of development and peace, both the countries should voluntarily lean to each other, but forceful leaning is not desirable and it is harmful. Bangladesh’s different groups/parties have failed to establish their main politics after trying 53 years. Such condition hampered our development, while countries like Malaysia and Singapore progressed more than us though they gained independence later than us. Bangladesh and India have been affected more or less due to negative activities of respective people in those countries.

India thought that it had been benefitted from Bangladesh with various benefits including remittance, but in fact they were also hurt. India would have achieved more progress if she had followed mutually beneficial foreign policy and ensured justice for all of her people. Doubt and fear are active in both the countries. If they can overcome this fear and bring each other under the banner of trust, both the countries will benefit as well as the humanity will survive. In both the countries, let the fundamentalist politics continue without harming the followers of other beliefs. We don't mind it.

In order to remove the mistrust and earn trust, if Oikya Party come to power for the next five years, Bangladesh will be seen as a role model of development, unity and communal harmony. Then India will also be motivated to move forward, and it will benefit both the countries. There will be no communal unrest in India either. When Bangladesh gets on the right track, then in the next election Bangladesh Oikya Party will not contest and leave the field for other parties to come to power. We want the implementation of ideals of Bangladesh Oikya Party either to be led by this party or other like-minded parties.

The policy of universal and peaceful approach has been adopted by Bangladesh Oikya Party. I call upon the countrymen to extend their all-out support to this party for the sake of the country’s greater interest.