The National Citizen Party (NCP) on Saturday called for a radical overhaul of the state structure through comprehensive reforms, aiming to fulfil the aspirations of the July mass uprising and prevent the re-emergence of fascism or autocratic tendencies in future governments.
“By reform, we mean fundamental reform and the reforms which will bring a radical change and a qualitative change in the structure of the state,” said NCP Convener Nahid Islam.
He made the remarks at his opening speech at the talks with the National Consensus Commission at the LD Hall of the Jatiya Sangsad Complex.
An eight-member NCP delegation led by Nahid Islam attended the dialogue at 10:30am with Vice Chairman of the Consensus Commission Prof Ali Riaz in the chair.
The National Consensus Commission arranged the talks as part of a series of dialogues with political parties to reach a national consensus over the state reform initiatives taken by the interim government.
Nahid Islam said different state institutions, including the Constitution, were politicised in the past. The seed of one person-centric structure was sown in the Constitution, he said.
“As a result, no matter who comes to power, no matter who is given the responsibility of running the state, if the state structure is kept unchanged, there will be a tendency among them to become fascist and autocratic,” he said.
The NCP Convener said the July mass uprising did not happen not just for the change of an individual. “There was no plan to remove one party from power and install another. Rather, there was an aspiration in the July Mass Uprising to establish a democratic state system that would protect the rights of people through fundamental and qualitative reforms of the state structure by bringing qualitative changes to the state,” he said.
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He said the aspirations that led people to take to the streets in the past, including the 1990 mass uprising, have failed. “That failure led to the creation of a fascist regime that lasted for 16 years,” he added.
Noting that the aspirations of the July Mass Uprising should no way be failed, Nahid said, “We must fulfill the desire that has been created among the people - this is commitment of all of us to the nation,” he said.
In the case of fundamental reforms of the State, the National Citizen Party, are giving special importance to the issues like the constitution, the Prime Minister, the judicial system and the electoral system, he added.
“We all have to make that commitment before the nation to ensure another autocratic system, fascism will not come to Bangladesh and we will move forward by closing all its paths. And we will work from our respective places to create a democratic constitution, a democratic state structure,” said the NCP chief.
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Earlier, on March 24, NCP submitted its written opinions over the reform recommendations to the National Consensus Commission.
Out of the 166 reform recommendations made by the Consensus Commission, the NCP agreed to 113 recommendations and agreed partially to 29 others.
On March 20 last, the National Consensus Commission opened its dialogues with political parties aiming to build a national consensus on the reform initiatives undertaken by the interim government.
The commission has already held talks with 12 political parties.
The commission formed under the leadership of Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus aims to establish a unified stance on critical reforms.
Since its inception on February 15, 2025, the commission has been working to finalise recommendations for the state reform proposals.
In the initial phase, key recommendations from five reform commissions — covering constitutional, public administration, electoral system, judiciary, and anti-corruption reforms — were compiled and shared with 39 political parties for their feedback. To date, 34 parties have responded.
The National Consensus Commission is working to build national consensus over reform initiatives by mid-July next, by completing the first round of talks with political parties by the first week of May next and entering the second round of talks in the second week of May.