“We don’t want to talk against India as we’ve no conflict with that country. The main problem is that now we’ve such a government in power that has no capacity to talk to India about our problems,” he said.
Speaking at a seminar, Fakhrul further said, “The government has no bargaining capacity to address the problems with India as it always depends on the country to hang on to power. This is the reality.”
The Association of Engineers, Bangladesh, a pro-BNP platform of engineers, arranged the programme on the possible adverse impacts on the country due to the Feni River water withdrawal deal with India at a city hotel.
Fakhrul said people have to realise that the more the current government will stay in power the more Bangladesh’s interests will be harmed, and its resources will get depleted.
Stating that the Feni River is Bangladesh’s river, not a common one, he said the government is allowing India to withdraw its water. “The Prime Minister said how she can deny if anyone seeks water for drinking. That’s fine. But she didn’t say anything about the sufferings of our lakhs of people whose crops and livelihoods are getting destroyed for lack of water from the Teesta River.”
The BNP leader said India has long been refusing to give Bangladesh water from the Teesta while the issue of ensuring the fair share of water of other common rivers also remains unresolved.
He said Bangladeshis are getting killed along the border, but the government says the border killing has dropped substantially. “In fact, we don’t see any fall in border killing.”
Fakhrul said the government did not yet place in parliament the deals the Prime Minister recently signed with India. “There’s no discussion on the deals in parliament. As per our constitution, any deal signed with other country must be placed in parliament and ratified. But the government never did it.”
On October 5 last, Bangladesh and India signed seven bilateral documents after a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House in New Delhi.
Fakhrul criticised Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen for his remark that the deaths of 53 workers in Saudi Arabia is insignificant. “It’s a dangerous comment.”
He said the minister earlier said Bangladesh’s relation with India is very warm. “I don’t want to utter what he exactly he said about it. It’s good that we’ve very nice relation with India, but why our interests aren’t protected and our problems aren’t resolved. Why can't we get water (from Teesta)?”
The BNP leader said the government has made the country’s economic condition very fragile with its wrong policies and corruption.
“They (govt) used to say Bangladesh is a role model. They’re such a role model that they’ve to depend on bank loans. All the banks have got depleted. Many economists are saying the future of the economy is bad,” he observed.
Fakhrul said the RMG export has marked a sharp fall and many garment factories are shut down while manufacturing industries are not setting up in the country.
He said there is no alternative to removing the current government from power to overcome the current crisis. “We must create a national unity to oust this monstrous regime.”