BNP accused of ‘duplicity’
Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Mia Golam Porwar on Friday sharply criticised the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) over its stance on the recent referendum, accusing the party of selectively accepting reform proposals while publicly avoiding a clear commitment to honour the referendum result in full.
Speaking as chief guest at a youth conference held at the Liaquat
Ali Auditorium of Khulna Press Club, Porwar said BNP never explicitly states that it accepts the referendum outcome.
Instead, he said, the party speaks only of accepting the “July Charter” — a formulation he argued effectively means endorsing the charter only after excluding the several notes of dissent BNP itself had submitted.
“If you remove those few dissenting points, what remains brings no significant structural change to the constitution,” Porwar said, according to remarks reported from the event.
He argued that voting “yes” in a referendum while simultaneously refusing to accept its full implications amounted to hypocrisy and double standards.
The conference was organised by the Youth and Sports Wing of Khulna Metropolitan Jamaat to mark International Youth Day 2026.
Porwar argued that the referendum verdict cannot be accepted in fragments. He compared the situation to twins born of the same mother, where one is acknowledged while the other is disowned — asserting that a voter cannot accept part of what they voted for while rejecting the rest.
He said the national election and the referendum, held on the same day, produced results that must be treated as a single, indivisible outcome, and that casting a “yes” vote in the referendum meant accepting the entirety of the proposed reforms.
The Jamaat leader alleged that BNP found it convenient to accept the results tied to its electoral symbol — the sheaf of paddy — because doing so paves the way for its members to become MPs and ministers.
Accepting the referendum in full, however, would require dismantling the entire constitutional architecture of what he described as the “fascist, authoritarian” rule associated with the ousted Sheikh Hasina government, in line with the settlement reached in the National Consensus Commission.
He said that framework would eliminate the unchecked powers of the prime minister and restore a balance between the offices of the president and the prime minister — outcomes he suggested BNP wants to avoid because they would curb the kind of authoritarian governance the party seeks to preserve.
This, he said, is why BNP has come to see the July Charter as an obstacle to its own path toward centralised power.
Porwar also said that in the “new Bangladesh,” there is no place for extortion, terrorism, looting, corruption, partisan appointments, or attacks on dissent.
He alleged that syndicates involved in extortion, thuggery, looting and narcotics have taken root at the district, upazila, union and ward levels, describing extortion and terrorism carried out in the name of politics as a major social ailment.
He called on young people to lead a social resistance against these practices and to help dismantle such syndicates.
Referring to the appointment of party loyalists to district councils, city corporations and various development authorities, Porwar said such practices create opportunities for contracting, tendering and financial deal-making centred around government institutions.
He said forgetting promises made to the public once in power is a chronic disease of politics, and that without a change in this mindset, the expected outcomes of the July uprising cannot be realised.
He added that elected members of parliament should be allowed to play a role in development activities in their own constituencies, and that no one should be permitted to interfere in the work of public representatives on the basis of party affiliation.
