Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has come down heavily on a section of the country’s intellectuals, saying elections bring out their conspiratorial side. "Whenever election comes, their conspiracies increase," the PM said. The premier said this while giving her introductory speech at Thursday’s Awami League Central Working Committee meeting, held at her official residence Ganabhaban. She said that the country’s development under her government will be seen by visionaries, while those who are blind will not see anything. "We have some intellectuals who are intellectually handicapped - I am saying that the intellectuals are disabled because they don't see any development and always think about how to remove Awami League from power," she said. She questioned why the intellectuals are busy with plotting against AL, before answering herself: "The only reason is that when there is an unusual situation or martial law, these people get some attention," she said, before branding them ‘worthless’ when democratic government prevails. That, she said, is why the said individuals feel ‘very disappointed’ when the country is governed democratically. She advised such intellectuals to open their eyes and suggest ways to do better work to the government, and expend their knowledge and learning for the welfare of the country as a whole. The prime minister struck a confident note, saying Awami League will retain power at the next general election with the trust and confidence of the people. She mentioned that Awami League always does politics for the welfare of the people, and gains power by winning their hearts. Bangabandhu’s daughter said her party never wants any undemocratic force to come to power in the country and hinder its democracy. She questioned how BNP that got only 30 seats in the 2008 general elections, dreams of gaining power again with the people's vote. "BNP is not doing anything better for the country through which it can return to power again," she said. Sheikh Hasina said since its inception, the BNP had played ducks and drakes with the people's voting rights. In this regard, she held up the party’s founder Ziaur Rahman's ‘farcical’ yes/no vote (referendum) and parliamentary election to cling to power, which she said he grabbed ‘illegally after violating the country's constitution’. Referring to the 15 February 1996 election, the PM said Khaleda Zia also held a farcical election in which no political parties took part. She mentioned that the people did not accept Khaleda Zia for rigging elections, and they compelled her to step down in just six weeks. Pointing out killing, disappearance and arson terrorism, Sheikh Hasina said Zia had ‘introduced’ killings and disappearances in the country, while Khaleda Zia is the ‘pioneer of arson terrorism’. Recalling the sufferers of such acts, Hasina questioned how any humane person in good conscience could support the perpetrators. The PM in her speech also elaborated on success stories and achievements of her government, and said the country witnesses the desired level of development under AL only. Read more: Bangladesh must not return to lawlessness again: PM Hasina

The nation is observing the Martyred Intellectuals Day to commemorate those intellectuals killed systematically by the Pakistan occupation forces and their local collaborators at the fag-end of the country’s Liberation War in 1971.