Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Acting Chairman Deshnayok Tarique Rahman today extended advance greetings of Durga Puja to Hindu community members and called upon them to celebrate the festival without any fear.
 
"I do believe and our party also believes that religion-opinion-party is for individuals, state is for all. Religion is for individuals, right to get safety for all," he said.
 
Tarique Rahman was addressing a greeting-exchange ceremony as the chief guest at BNP Chairperson's Gulshan political office on Friday.
 
The programme was arranged in honour of the Hindu community members on the occasion of Janmashtami as several hundred members of the community from across the country joined it.
 
The BNP acting chairman said: "Bangladesh is all of ours. BNP's policy and politics is that every citizen of Bangladesh will enjoy equal rights in every sphere".
 
Noting that Durga Puja, the biggest religious festival of Bangalee Hindu community, will be celebrated in the next month, Tarique Rahman urged them to celebrate the festival without any fear and worry.
 
"Our Liberation War's main mantra was equality, humane dignity and social justice. Freedom fighters freed Bangladesh at the cost of lakhs of lives to build an independent state and society where every citizen regardless of religion-caste, believer or non-believer or reformist can enjoy their religious, political, cultural and social rights without any hindrance," he said.

He said there was no question who is Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or  Christian during the Liberation War.

"There is no reason to worry about minority or majority in our independent Bangladesh. Irrespective of religion and caste, the only identity of every citizen is Bangladeshis whether he or she is Bangalee or non-Bangalee, believer or non-believer or reformist," he said.

Tarique Rahman said the people have witnessed what happened in the last 15 years of fascist rule.

As there was no rule of law in the whole country, SK Sinha had become victim of injustice even after being the Chief Justice, he said, adding that the court and "Aynaghar" became identical During the dictatorial regime.

The BNP acting chairman said there is no alternative to establish the rule of law in the state and society in order to ensure the rights and safety of every citizen, regardless of religion and caste.

"I do believe that every citizen's right to vote is an effective and powerful weapon in protecting their rights," he said.

As long as every citizen regardless of religion, caste, creed and party cannot elect public representatives by their choice without any fear to establish a government accountable to the people, no citizen's safety and rights are secured, he mentioned.

Tarique Rahman said the people regardless of Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists or Christians achieved independence for the country through Liberation War.

"Now we are talking about the second independence, we have to protect it. We will have to make united efforts to defeat those who are hatching conspiracies here now," he said.

While presiding over the programme, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said BNP does politics with the participation of all.

"Through an incredible revolution and students-people movement following 15 years of struggle, we toppled a terrible monster. We achieved victory. There is no way to deny that there has been a planned conspiracy to thwart this revolution and unfortunately, an attempt has been made to push you into it," he said.

Noting that a large number of Indian journalists visited Bangladesh, he said they informed the journalists that what happened in Bangladesh following the revolution was completely political, not communal.

Same conspiracy is being hatched in Chattogram Hill Tracts (CHT) areas, he noted.

"Don't consider these incidents as isolated ones. Conspiracies began there (CHT) in the same way. We will have to resist it. Let us move forward under the leadership of Tarique Rahman so that we can establish a "Rainbow Nation" in Bangladesh in the future," Fakhrul said.

BNP's Assistant Religious Affairs Secretary Amalendu Das Apu and Hindu, Buddhist Christian Kalyan Front Secretary General Tapan Dey jointly conducted the programme.

BNP Standing Committee Members Dr Khandker Mosharraf Hossain and Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan, Vice-Chairman Nitai Roy Chowdhury, Chairperson's Adviser Professor Sukomal Barua, Gonoforum General Secretary Subrata Chowdhury, Hindu, Buddhist Christian Kalyan Front Chairman Bijan Kanti Sarkar, Kalyan Front's Feni district leader Kamakkha Chanda, Khagrachhari leader Ajay Sengupta, Savar upazila leader Uttam Ghosh, Khulna leader Sujana Jolly, Barishal leader Sanjay Gupta, retired TV producer Manoz Sengupta and Goura Sinha also spoke.

Charu Chandra Das Brahmachari from ISKCON, Chattogram Principal Chinmay Krishna Das Goswami, Mahanagar Puja Udjapan Committee President Jayanta Kumar Deb, Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad President Basudeb Dhar, General Secretary Santosh Sharma, Gulshan Puja Committee leaders JL Bhowmik, Panna Lal Dutta, Hindu Mahajote leader Sushanta Kumar Chakrabarty, Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad leader Nirmol Rozario also spoke.

BNP Standing Committee Members Nazrul Islam Khan and Dr AZM Zahid Hossain, Vice-Chairman Barkat Ullah Bulu, central leader Jayanta Kumar Kundu, Abdul Bari Danny, Aparna Roy, Ramesh Dutta, Debashish Roy Madhu, Sushil Barua, John Gomez, Miltan Baidya and Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Front leaders were also present.