Bangladesh: Opposition leaders slam govt over energy crisis, economic hardship, worsening law and order

Bangladesh opposition leaders rejected the BNP government’s claims of success after 180 days, citing worsening energy shortages, load shedding, factory closures, unemployment and deteriorating law and order. Critics said public suffering and insecurity have increased, challenging the government’s key election promises

Dhaka: Bangladesh’s opposition leaders have rejected the BNP government’s claims of success during its first 180 days in office, citing continuing energy crisis, frequent load shedding, industrial plant closures, rising unemployment concerns and the deteriorating law and order situation in the country, local media reported.

Speaking at the national Parliament on Thursday, independent lawmaker Rumeen Farhana criticised the government and highlighted growing public frustration over the ongoing gas and electricity crisis, saying people sarcastically remark, “Here comes Tuku, there goes Tuku,” referring to the country’s Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Iqbal Hassan Mahmood and the prolonged crisis.

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“Fuel prices are rising, there is an outcry over electricity, and gas is unavailable… this is the same government that promised one crore new jobs during the election. Yet within six months of coming to power, 62,000 people have lost their jobs. More than 900 factories have shut down. Will new jobs be created? Those who are employed, only God knows how long their jobs will last,” Bangladesh’s leading newspaper the Daily Star quoted Rumeen as saying.

She recalled that the government had set improving law and order, controlling commodity prices and ensuring energy security as three major priorities for its first 180 days.

Referring to the worsening law-and-order situation across Bangladesh, Rumeen said, “It is difficult to speak about it. Our home minister either mocks the issue or hides behind wordplay.” “But if you talk to ordinary people, you will hear them say that, just as the foreign ministry has three ministers, even if Bangladesh had 64 home ministers for 64 districts, the situation could hardly be any worse. That is the state of law and order,” the lawmaker added.

Meanwhile, the Jamaat-e-Islami-led 11-party alliance also slammed the government, saying the latter could not claim success amid the crisis confronting people in their daily lives and the deteriorating law-and-order situation.

Jamaat’s Assistant Secretary-General Hamidur Rahman Azad made these remarks while addressing journalists following a meeting of the alliance leaders, “Public suffering, deterioration of law and order, and insecurity have increased in the country, Bangladeshi daily Prothom Alo quoted Hamidur as saying.

He further said: “The electricity and gas crises, the closure of industrial plants, unemployment, the deterioration of law and order, and the failure to ensure people’s security must be viewed as failures of the government.”

Highlighting the law and order situation, Hamidur cited figures on abductions, enforced disappearances and killings. He claimed that about 512 people had been abducted or subjected to enforced disappearance over nearly six months, while roughly 1,800 had been killed, without identifying the source of the data.