Stating that the 10 Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) signed with India during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to New Delhi are just a 'new version of slavery', BNP on Sunday demanded the government to make public immediately all the agreements signed with the neighbouring country.
The party also expressed concern that granting India a rail corridor, allowing it to develop a network of railway tracks through Bangladesh, would be suicidal and contrary to national interests.
Speaking at a press conference at the BNP Chairperson’s Gulshan office, Party Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said they will create public opinion against the anti-state deals and MoUs with India.
"The present head of the illegal mafia government, Sheikh Hasina, who has taken away people's voting rights, has signed 10 MoUs with India. It is a new version of slavery,” he said.
The BNP leader said providing India with a corridor under the guise of connectivity, to link one part of India to another via railway tracks passing through Bangladesh, will jeopardize the sovereignty and national security of Bangladesh.
“Sheikh Hasina has been indulged in a reprehensible conspiracy to ensnare Bangladesh in a prolonged deep trap of India's slavery through the MoUs, sacrificing the nation's independence and sovereignty. Such agreements against national interests will not be accepted by people," he said.
Fakhrul alleged that Sheikh Hasina, who is running the country without a public mandate, signed the anti-state MoUs as a kickback to India in exchange for an extension of Awami League’s illegitimate grip on state power, rather than for the welfare of the country and its people.
“We demand that all agreements signed with India, including the recent ones, be made public immediately. We want to reiterate that the people will never accept these agreements against sovereignty, national interest and national security. BNP rejects all these anti-national deals and MoUs,” Fakhrul said.
On June 21, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina went to India on a two-day state visit at the invitation of her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.
On the second day of the visit, Dhaka and New Delhi signed 10 Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs), seven of these new and three renewed to further consolidate the ever-growing relationship between the two neighbouring countries.
According to the Indian Media reports rail tracks will be set up through Bangladesh to connect the Indian Railways to the northeast with the rest of the country, bypassing a 22 km route through the Siliguri Corridor, commonly known as the ‘Chicken's Neck.
BNP Standing Committee members Mirza Abbas, Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, Nazrul Islam Khan, and Selima Rahman, among others, were present at the press conference.
