"Big headlines are there in newspapers that Bangladesh is one of the top three countries in the world in terms of higher growth. We’re happy as the growth is good. But who’re reaping the benefits of that questionable growth?” he said.

Speaking at a doa mahfil, he said, “We feel ashamed of it as we see only a handful of people are getting benefited from this growth in Bangladesh. That growth is not the growth of people. We want such a growth that people will be able to enjoy its advantages.”

Jatiyatabadi Swechchasebak Dal arranged the programme at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office, seeking divine blessings for the early recovery of ailing BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.

Nazrul, a BNP standing committee member, said some people like Papia and Samrat involved with the ruling party are reaping the benefits of the GDP growth by ‘plundering’ public money. “They deposit the lotted money with Swiss banks and create their second homes in Canada, Malaysia, Thailand and other countries by siphoning off their ill-gotten money. People don’t expect such a growth.”

He said people want a growth that will help bring happiness and keep them in peace. “People also want their prosperity to be sustainable and their children to get a chance to live a good life. We also want to remove all the obstacles standing in the way of people’s growth as we do politics for them and ensure their betterment.”

The BNP leader said a genuine growth of people can be achieved when the government is accountable to them. “A government having accountability to people can be established only when it’ll be elected through a credible election.”

He said democracy must be ‘restored’ to hold the elections in a credible manner and make the government accountable to people.

Nazrul said when the entire world is facing corona pandemic Bangladesh is facing other epidemics of misdeeds, repression on women and politicisation alongside the virus as an outcome of ‘snatching’ people’s basic rights.

He urged the BNP leaders and activists to get united and strengthen their organisational capacity to get rid of the current situation and ‘restore’ democracy in the country.”

Ruhul Kabir Rizvi was admitted to Labaid Specialized Hospital in the city on Tuesday as he suffered a heart attack.

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