Dhaka, Feb 20 (UNB) – BNP leader Jamiruddin Sircar on Tuesday stressed the need for his party to carry out a grassroots campaign to reach out to common people across the country as a means to restore democracy.

Speaking at a discussion meeting, he also expressed high hope that people will turn around to establish their rights as the Language Movement of 1952 teaches people not to bow their heads.

“We have to now go door to door of the people and say together, BNP means peace, democracy, and the development of common people. Inshallah, democracy will return to the country," the BNP leader said.

Sircar, a BNP standing committee member and a former speaker of the national parliament, said the country is destined to descend into chaos due to the absence of democracy and the rule of law.

He said the BNP and the leaders and workers of the party have long been going through a tough time since they have working to establish democracy and people’s rights.

BNP arranged the programme at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh, marking Shaheed Day and International Mother Language Day which will be observed across the country on Wednesday with due respect.

Sircar said the Language Movement was not a traditional movement as it was an ideological movement.

He said the Language Movement was a democratic movement in protest against Pakistanis' efforts to impose Urdu as the state language instead of Bengali.

"The Language Movement led to the attainment of Bangladesh's independence. This Language Movement teaches us that we will realise our rights...we won’t bow down. We must be allowed to raise our voice and our rights must be ensured,” the BNP leader said.

Another BNP standing committee member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy said Bangali is the only nation who has sacrificed lives, shed blood, and fought for their mother language. “Sacrificing lives for the mother language Bangla was the best example in the past century.”

He said Pakistanis gave Bangalis a Shaheed Minar by brutally killing those who launched the Language Movement on February 21, 1952. “But it has now become a situation of creating Shaheed Minar in every house in Bangladesh thanks to Sheikh Hasina.”

The BNP leader alleged that their party’s several thousand leaders and workers were subjected to murder and enforced disappearance while thousands of others were subjected to repression and harassment by the Awami League regime.

BNP Standing Committee member Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan said Bangladesh was liberated to establish democracy. “Almost 53 years after the independence of the country, now we have reached a critical juncture where democracy is dead in Bangladesh.”

“Let’s come forward to bring back the rights of the people and establish the government of the people. The basic rights of people must be restored in the country. That's why we were on the streets, are on the streets, will be on the streets."