UNB, Dhaka :
Noted columnist Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury on Friday blamed BNP senior vice chairman Tarique Rahman for spoiling the January 5 parliamentary polls by advising BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia not to join any interim government under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Both Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia had “almost agreed” to be a part of the election time government, he said, addressing a discussion at Jatiya Press Club in the city.
Gaffar Chowdhury further said: “An agreement was almost reached under the UN mediation that Sheikh Hasina would remain the Prime Minister, but without any executive power. “But it was Tarique who phoned Khaleda from London and suggested her that Sheikh Hasina should be kept outside the government at any cost,” he added.
Gaffar also slammed Tarique Rahman for his ‘defamatory’ remarks on the Liberation War and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
He said that rather than taking part in discussion about Tarique’s comments, legal steps should be taken against him for distorting history of Liberation War.
“I think he (Tarique) has become insane. He is not in power; there is even no possibility he will be in power soon… his state is like that of Miran, the killer of Sirajuddowla, who had gone mad and proclaimed himself as the emperor of Delhi in his last days,’ said Gaffar, who writes extensively on political issues from London.
Dhaka University vice chancellor Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique, Peshajibi Samannoy Parishad president AFM Mesbahuddin and its secretary general Prof Kamrul Hasan Khan also spoke on the occasion.
