Chittagong: Anti-British revolutionary Binod Bihari Sunday vented his pent-up frustration about the state of country`s present politics and particularly blamed Awami League-backed mayoral candidate in Chittagong City Corporation polls ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury for creating a distance between the minority groups and the ex-mayor.

Binod Bihari, an iconic revolutionary figure of the subcontinent, who turned one hundred on 10 January 2010, expressed his resentment when campaigns for Chittagong City Corporation elections, scheduled for June 17, got a full-blast momentum.

He made the allegation when AL acting general secretary and PM`s special secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif and general secretary of Swechha Sebok League Pankaj Debnath along with central leaders met him in his port city`s Momin Road residence on Sunday morning to get the revolutionary`s support for their candidate.

He, however, said: “Even we never support the Mothiur Rahman Nizami-backed mayoral candidate for the upcoming CCC polls”.

The veteran politician of the old times, who played a major role in the struggle for driving away the British rulers in 1930, also deplored, “Despite seeking permission to meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to let her know about the harassment we were facing during Mohiuddin`s last regime, I failed.”

It is stated that after the CCC election held in October 2005, the CCC mayor locked in clash with the leaders of minority community over the acquisition of cattle-slaughter land (Debottar property of Hindu community) located in the city’s Golpahar area.

Binod Bihari along with Hindu leaders went to court to get back the property, and the case is now under trial.

In the meeting with Bihari, Pankaj said, “We are finding out the party’s problems.  Those who will work against Mohiuddin in the CCC election, ignoring Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina`s direction, will be suspended from the party.”

Hanif said pleaded they don’t know the sorrows and anguish for long time during the government tenure. “That really surprised me and I will tell the PM all about it going back to Dhaka,” he told Binod Bihari to pacify the centenarian politician.

“We want a non-communal Bangladesh, free from war criminals, and to attain that end a revolutionary`s backup is very necessary”.


BDST: 1738 pm, 6 June 2010
RDG/MRH/MUA