Presidential election went against July Uprising aspirations: Hannan Masud
“We were forced to greet and congratulate another party-backed, one-party president. This was against the aspirations of July,” he says.
The recent presidential election went against the aspirations of the July Uprising, said National Citizens Party (NCP) central joint chief coordinator and Noakhali-6 lawmaker Abdul Hannan Masud, arguing that Bangladesh has yet to break free from the political system established under the previous regime.
"We may have been freed from Shahabuddin of the fascist era, but we have not actually been freed from the system. Caught in the trap of Article 70 from the Hasina era, we have remained trapped in the same system," he said while speaking as the chief guest at the prize-giving ceremony of the July Memorial Football Tournament in Lakshmipur today (21 August).
"We were forced to greet and congratulate another party-backed, one-party president. This was against the aspirations of July," he added.
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Hannan said participating in the presidential election may have been a mistake on their part, but reforms should include repealing Article 70, forming upper and lower houses of parliament, and electing the president through a direct secret ballot.
"Electing a neutral president and a guardian of the state through a direct secret ballot is an aspiration of the July Uprising and of all political parties. We have to work from the front to make this a reality," he said.
He also said the struggle was not limited to opposing Sheikh Hasina.
"Our liberation was not only a struggle against Hasina. We have to tell every generation that this struggle was against Indian hegemony," he said.
He claimed India had used all its power to keep Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh but had failed because, according to him, she did not represent the people of Bangladesh.
"Hasina was a representative of India. She tried to keep the people of Bangladesh subjugated to India by representing India," Hannan said.
He claimed that the July uprising brought down not only the Awami League and Sheikh Hasina but also what he described as Indian hegemony.
"We stood up against Indian aggression in this region. No matter how much India threatens or tries to destabilise Bangladesh, it will not be able to do much," he said.
