BNP on Monday alleged that the ruling party business syndicate has raised the prices of daily essentials for lack of the government’s market intervention.

"The prices of essentials have gone up several hundred times. The market syndicate of their own (ruling party's) people have done this,” said BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.

Speaking at a press conference at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office, he also said though the prices of all essentials have skyrocketed, there is no government intervention to control it.

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“The Awami government has created a manmade disaster in Bangladesh through the unlimited rise in commodity prices, misrule, enforced disappearances, killings and extrajudicial killings,” Rizvi observed.

The BNP leader also alleged that Awami League government has made the people of the country even poorer in the last 12 years.

He came down hard on Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi for his comment that the government has nothing to do with the rise in commodity prices. “His comment has exposed that Awami League is not running the country. When you’ve nothing to do then who runs the country? Is any invisible force running the country?”

The BNP leader said the commerce minister's statement is nothing but a strong defence for corruption. “It’s also a cruel joke of the minister against the unemployed, half-starved and starving people of the country.”

He also questioned the government as to why it remains in power by force when it cannot deal with people’s problems. 

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“A decent government steps down when it fails and can’t do anything for people. This is a practice in the democratic world. But you (govt) have been there in power shamelessly through an illegal parliament,” Rizvi said.

He slammed Prime Minister's ICT Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy for his remark that the country was pushed back 50 years during BNP's five-year rule.

“He (Joy) did not say how Awami League has taken the country forward…His remarks give an impression that he has studied in a strange institute. Mr Joy is the headmaster of providing bizarre information.”