Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has brushed aside criticisms, saying the international community sees Bangladesh as a development role model.
She also said her government has established a Digital Bangladesh and the critics are using the tools of the initiative to damage the Awami League’s image at home and abroad, reports bdnews24.com.
Sheikh Hasina slammed the critics while speaking via video conferencing at a discussion organised by the Awami League on Tuesday to mark Bangabandhu’s Homecoming Day.
“Bangladesh is progressing now. The international community calls it a development role model. But some people are continuously barking in our country. Let them bark. Nothing will come out of this.”
The prime minister said the critics have developed a habit of going after the Awami League whenever it does something good for the country. “Because the ghosts of the people who did not want Bangladesh to be independent, who wanted to destroy Bangladesh and its development still exist in the society.”
“They exist in the political arena and doing it [criticising the government]. They are complaining in foreign countries, spreading misinformation.”
“Those who cannot tolerate Bangladesh’s development are always saying that nothing has been achieved. This is what I tell them – please see the mirror and think about what you had done in the past.”
The prime minister criticised the BNP for defending its Chairperson Khaleda Zia and her son Tarique Rahman, noting that Khaleda has been convicted of graft and Tarique of corruption and a deadly grenade attack on an Awami League rally in 2004.
She claimed the Awami League drove away hunger whenever it came to power.
“Old clothes needed to be brought from abroad for the poor during the rules of military dictators Ziaur Rahman and HM Ershad, and Khaleda Zia. We don’t need to do this now.”
She urged all to take a vow to build a developed Bangladesh free of hunger as dreamt by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.