October 2022 Full PDF final

POLITICS
POLITICS
Addressing energy crisis:
In the last ten years, Bangladesh has made a lot of
progress in this area by focusing on building capacity
and expanding transmission and coverage. Just a
few months ago, people believed that Bangladesh
had put its history of power outages far behind it because
it was meeting almost all of its power needs.
Now, Bangladesh is becoming an electricity-hungry
country as the world has seen a global energy crisis
due to the Covid outbreak, extreme weather, growing
economic recession, and obviously the Russia-
Ukraine war. The global crisis exposed energy supply
chain gaps. Compared to April 2020, the price of LNG
has gone up eight times and the price of crude oil has
gone up about five times.
In response to rising energy prices on the international
market, the government has implemented initiatives
as a part of its austerity measures to conserve
fuel and power. Within the upcoming fiscal year, one
of the Rampal coal-fired power plant's units is anticipated
to start operating. One unique slogan of the
present government is "electricity for all." Once completed,
the Rooppur nuclear power station project
and the Matarbari 1200 MW coal-fired power plant
project will make a significant contribution to the
fulfillment of this motto and contribute in fighting
the ongoing energy crisis. Additionally, Bangladesh
has signed MoU with Brunei to combat the energy
crisis in Bangladesh.
BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam
Alamgir addresses a rally at Uttara, organised
by the party’s Dhaka north city unit
HEATED POLITICS WITH AN ELECTION AHEAD
Activists are going to join the
rally of BNP in Khulna
IS BNP GEARING UP FOR NEXT NATIONAL ELECTION?
A crucial element of any election
is the act of participation from
all parties throughout the political
spectrum. Both the 2014 and
2018 elections under the current
regime fell short of becoming
celebrations of democracy, as
BNP, the main rival of the Awami
League opted not to run in 2014.
In the latter, BNP chairperson
Khaleda Zia was prohibited from
the election due to legal convictions,
which led the party to terrible
electoral performance. PM
Sheikh Hasina attempted to have
dialogues in 2014 and 2018 about
the elements of the government
ahead of the elections for establishing
a fair electoral process.
Since August, we can see the
change as BNP has been routinely
presenting a range of programs. It
is crucial for them to participate
in the upcoming elections as they
need to be in the election to sustain
themselves in the national
parliament.
Already, they have been unable to
improve their image since the last
election and attain public emotion.
However, this time, party
officials promised to organize
peaceful protests including rallies
and processions. "Although
four of our leaders and activists
were killed, we will not leave the
streets. As a democratic party, we
will continue to wage our peaceful
and systematic movement,"
Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku, BNP’s
standing committee member
stated. However, they have been
observed engaging in aggressive
behaviour that is spreading unrest
around the country. They are
accused of using the sufferings of
the public to achieve their political
agenda. BNP unveiled a new
initiative in September. In that
context, on December 10, a sizable
rally in Dhaka will mark the
conclusion of this three-month
program. The party intends to
continue its campaign till the upcoming
national parliamentary
elections.
Since August 22, the BNP has organized
protests across the nation
over the increase in the cost
of fuel and necessities. BNP has
debated expanding the protests
to cities, divisional headquarters,
and districts in order to maintain
their presence on the streets because
they view the ongoing national
protest programs as a "success."
BNP supporters have recently
clashed over political issues, intensifying
the political situation
in the nation. During the time
of global crisis, where the world
along with Bangladesh is facing
challenges, BNP has been creating
chaos in the name of protests.
Instead of dealing with the crisis
for the betterment of the nation,
BNP has been continuously uttering
provocative, anti-govt. and
bewildering statements, which
is causing unrest and resentment
among the citizens. Obaidul
Quader, the general secretary of
the AL, claimed a few months
back that the BNP is planning
scheming plots to inflame the political
climate in the nation in an
attempt to establish a national
government. He added,
"Each BNP leader is speaking
in different tones at different
times. In the name of the election-time
government or neutral
government or sometimes a
national government, they are
hatching deception to heat up
the political ground, which will
never succeed.”
The BNP has allegedly been engaging
in chaos in the name of the
movement, according to the AL.
However, BNP claimed that in August,
over 700 party leaders and
activists were detained, and 50
cases were brought against them.
BNP Secretary General Mirza
Fakhrul Islam Alamgir criticized
the administration for undermining
the party's non-violent initiatives
and holding party officials,
leaders, and activists accountable
in "false and fraudulent" instances.
A political maneuver has
been used to periodically back
down and restricts the programs
of BNP to avoid violence. But a
much tougher stance has been
taken about the meetings outside
of Dhaka as the opposition
party gets more violent. In fact,
the police opened fire to control
the situation.
In a recent general meeting held
by BNP caused panic among the
citizens living in Khulna, for which
the workers had stopped the
transport service. The opposition
party blamed the govt. for cutting
the transport system in Khulna.
Whereas, Obaidul Quader has
confirmed that the government
did not restrict the BNP rally and
said, “The government did not
give any order to stop the transport,
but the workers stopped the
bus movement for the sake of
their lives”.
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