Suranjit Sengupta, who was the co-chair of the constitution amendment committee, has voiced frustration over the grumbling — both from the right and left parties — over the 15th amendment.
'We couldn't make anyone happy with our amendment, neither the right nor the left ones, let alone the communalists,' Suranjit told a discussion at the Public Library in the city on Saturday.
'That's because the Awami League is neither right nor left. We're at the centre,' he added.
Parliament passed the 15th constitution amendment bill into law on Thursday, restoring four fundamental principles — nationalism, socialism, democracy and secularism — of the 1972 constitution, and retaining Islam as the state region and 'Bismillah' in its preamble.
Several allies of the Awami League and left-leaning political parties are opposing the retention of state religion and 'Bismillah', while Islamic parties have called strikes to protest at secularism and the move to drop words 'Absolute Trust and Faith in Allah' from the constitution.
Surajit said he saw caretaker government system as the 'greatest weakness' of politics.
'We held three parliament elections under the system but rather than making parliament effective we got close to confrontation. Anyone who loses elections avoids parliament.
'They oppose parliament instead of opposing the government,' he said.
The 15th amendment has also brought an end to the caretaker government system that came into existence in 1996 under pressure from the Awami League.
Suranjit called on the opposition to join discussions, saying, 'No government will be in power during elections. The Election Commission will conduct the elections. Laws will be amended to strengthen the commission, if necessary, so that we may appoint a commissioner acceptable to everyone.'
He said the opposition was creating confusion by calling the EC partisan. 'They're betraying their own consciences,' he said.
Source : New Age
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