Emphasising the need to gain the people's trust in the election-time interim government system, six left-leaning lawmakers on Saturday said that the dialogue between the ruling alliance and opposition on the election process was inevitable.
'The opposition leader has said that the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment will trigger conflict, but I am saying that a dialogue on the issue is inevitable. Khaleda Zia has no other option but dialogue,' said Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal's president Hasanul Huq Inu while clarifying the stance of six lawmakers of the JSD, Workers Party of Bangladesh and National Awami Party.
The lawmakers held a news briefing at JSD's central office on Bangabandhu Avenue to clarify their stand on amendments to the Constitution. Lawmakers Rashed Khan Menon, Amina Ahmed and Fazle Hossain Badshah were present at the briefing while Mainuddin Khan Badal and Shah Zikrul Huq remained absent.
Inu said that the BNP chief knows that there will be no understanding without dialogue, but she is eager to avoid resolving the issue because of her political agenda and to protect her sons and war criminals.
He said the issued could be resolved anytime if Khaleda refrained from threatening the government and sat down for a dialogue.
Inu said that holding free and fair elections under the system adopted in the Fifteenth Amendment by strengthening the Election Commission was very much possible, and now it was important to gain the people's trust in the interim government system.
'Holding the general elections of 2014 in a free and fair manner with the participation of all is a challenge to the ruling alliance and we the partners have taken up the challenge,' he said.
Workers Party's president Rashed Khan Menon said that the decision to scrap the caretaker government system required consultation with the BNP, but the party did not turn up for discussion despite being invited.
Menon said that the government had offered to sit for discussion with the BNP and 'the main opposition party should have joined the talks and given its proposals.'
He said that the six lawmakers did not want to accept Clause 2 which puts Bismillah-Ar-Rahman-Ar-Rahim before the preamble of the Constitution, Clause 4 that retains Islam as the state religion, Clause 6 that identifies the people as Bangalees, Clause 14 that identifies the national minorities as 'tribes, minor races, ethnic sects and communities', and Clause 16 which allows religion-based politics.
'We gave our full consent to other Clauses of the Bill. Restoration of the four basic principles of the Constitution is a good start in tackling the communal axis,' he said.
Inu and Menon claimed they did not compromise their ideals to protect their parliamentary seats. 'We voted for the Bill as we agreed with all the clauses of the Bill except the six.'
Menon regretted that religion-based politics gained more scope through the passage of the Bill with the clauses which they opposed. 'Our failure has increased the danger of fundamentalism,' he said.
Menon said they had informed the speaker that they prefer passage of the Clauses of the bills separately but he had put all the Clauses in one package for voting.
Source : New Age
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