BNP hiring foreign agents to spread propaganda against polls: Hasan

Information and Broadcasting Minister and Awami League Joint General Secretary Dr Hasan Mahmud has said BNP recruited some Jewish agents to spread falsehoods against the January 7 elections after being rejected by the people.

“People have rejected BNP’s call to resist the polls. Now they are urging to boycott the elections and employed some Jewish agents, including David Bergman, to make the poll questionable,” he said while replying to a query from reporters at his secretariat office in Dhaka.

In fact, the minister said, the countrymen have rejected BNP’s anti-poll campaign. Now they are urging people to boycott the polls, which means the BNP’s voice against the elections is fading away, said Hasan.

BNP’s recruited lobbyists are writing articles in different foreign newspapers. But there is no benefit to their evil motive,” he said, adding that Begum Khaleda Zia also had written an article in a US newspaper by her name against the country.

The information minister said it is nothing new, as the BNP can do anything against the country. Even they wrote an article forging the signatures of congressmen and presenting a fake US president’s advisor before the nation, he said.

Hasan Mahmud said the BNP also had spread propaganda that Indian Home Minister Amit Shah phoned them. By doing this BNP has made itself a fake party, he noted.

Replying to another query over a report from the Brussels-based organisation International Crisis Group (ICG) on the recent politics of Bangladesh, the minister said it is very easy to make a report from Brussels.

The report was surely made one month ago without considering the real situation in Bangladesh, the minister said, adding that the report would have been different if it had been made based on current reality. He hoped that the ICG would correct their report later.

About the boycott programmes by left-leaning parties, Dr Hasan said, “I respect my leftist socialists’ brothers as they are pro-liberation forces and socialism is also one of the main pillars of our party. For this, I also support many issues of leftists.”

But, he said, it is a sheer truth that they have no public support. So, there is no impact whether the leftist parties are joining the poll or not, he said.

He said the countrymen are now polls-oriented, and the election will be held in a free, fair and festive mood. The European Union, US, SAARC countries, OIC, and other countries have already sent their observers to monitor the voting, he said.