2001 election outcome a result of conspiracy: Hasina

Bangladesh Awami League president and prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday alleged the 2001 national election outcome was a result of a huge conspiracy against her party and she was witness to it, reports UNB.

Hasina’s arch-enemy Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami swept to the victory in the 2001 general elections.     

"I was the direct witness to that [the conspiracy] as BNP gave an undertaking to sell gas if they could go to power," Hasina iterated.

The prime minister came up with the allegation while addressing the grand conference of agriculturalists of the Diploma Krishibid Institution, Bangladesh, at the Krishibid Institution auditorium in the city.

During the caretaker regime, just before the 2001 national election, Hasina recalled, she, her party general secretary Zillur Rahman, BNP chief Khaleda Zia and BNP's secretary general Mannan Bhuiyan attended a luncheon at the house of the then caretaker government head Latifur Rahman.

Hasina said former US president Jimmy Carter attended the luncheon where the issue of selling gas by a US company to India came up for discussions.

"I then said I had already told the US president [Bill Clinton] what I was to say during his visit to Dhaka and my visit to the US. There would be no change in my policy," claimed Hasina.

At one point of the discussion, the AL president said, she along with Zillur Rahman walked out of that meeting, but BNP chief Khaleda Zia and Mannan Bhuiyan stayed back and gave an undertaking to sell gas to another country.

Hasina, however, didn’t make things clear how she came to know about giving the undertaking after Hasina and her secretary left the scene.

"If you look back at the results of the 2001 national election, you could find that AL got the higher popular votes, but it couldn't win the majority seats in parliament. There was no doubt that it was a huge conspiracy against our party," she added.

Hasina said she had responded to US president Bill Clinton's request to sell gas to India by saying that she was not aware of the real gas reserves in Bangladesh and also that the country’s gas resources belonged to the people.

"I told Bill Clinton that if there was any additional reserve of at least 50 years’ gas after meeting the country’s demand, only then would we sell the surplus, or else not. It was quite natural for a President to be unhappy about this," Hasina recalled.

Describing diploma agriculturalists as front-ranking soldiers in agricultural production, Hasina said they worked hard by the side of farmers in the field while the government introduced modern technology-based digital agriculture system to ensure food security.

Hasina also urged all, including the diploma agriculturalists, to build the country with the united efforts of all.

"We must develop our country… we've earned our independence through blood. We don't want to live as a nation of beggars. We want to live as a dignified nation and we can earn that dignity when we'll be self-reliant in all fields."

Source: Prothom Alo