Dhaka //

BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi has called for a ‘boycott of Indian products’ in protest against the desecration of the national flag of Bangladesh and the attack on the Assistant High Commission in Agartala.

At a function in front of the National Press Club, Rizvi threw away the Indian saree given by his wife Arjuman Ara Begum. Later, leaders and activists set the saree on fire.

Rizvi said, “Those who tear down the flag of our country… we will boycott the products of their country. Our mothers, sisters and wives will no longer buy Indian sarees that we used to buy from their country. They will not buy Indian soap, they will not buy Indian toothpaste, they will not buy anything from India.”

“My country is self-reliant. I grow onions here… Our onion stalks are much larger than India’s onions, our chillies are much hotter than India’s chillies… If we don’t have space, we will plant chillies on the roof, we will plant papaya trees in our courtyards… So we won’t be dependent on them (India)… We will boycott Indian products.”

‘Rizvi threw away Indian sarees’

Rizvi said, “My wife had an old saree at my house… My wife gave me an Indian saree… I said give it to her today.. She gave it to me. This is the Indian saree, my wife herself gave it to me, I threw it in front of you today (when I threw it away, the workers set it on fire with anti-India slogans)… No more Indian sarees.”

‘We will wear Tangail sarees, we will wear Rajshahi silk, we will wear Comilla’s khaddar.”
At this time, the workers started chanting slogans like ‘Boycott, Boycott, Indian Products’.
On Thursday morning, the event was held in front of the National Press Club under the banner ‘Buy Domestic Products and Be Blessed’ to encourage boycott of Indian products and use of domestic products.
Rizvi said, “You will give a little… There is no reason to think that we will be dependent on you. We will have to listen to you and say that you will give a little… A few people like Hasina can say this… But crores of Bangladeshis will not do this.”
“But I will tell the people of my country, they have tried to plunder Bangladesh, they have burned the Bangladesh flag, they have tried to humiliate us… We will not insult the Indian flag, we will not belittle the dignity of another independent country… We will not respect the independence and sovereignty of every nation… We will not belittle them like them. We will respect the flag of their country but will boycott their products.”

‘We will eat once a day, and not bow down’

The senior joint secretary general of BNP, asking the Indians, said, “Are you not spreading propaganda against us… You don’t like us. Even then, we have to buy your things?”
“The people of Bangladesh are not people who bow down. We will eat once a day… Even then, we will not bow down.”
“Do you provide treatment for free?”
Rizvi said, “They say that many Indian journalists, many political leaders say that if we (India) don’t come here, you (the people of Bangladesh) don’t get treatment. I ask, hey, do you provide treatment for free… do you serve a cup of tea for free… You don’t have this precedent.”
“People from Bangladesh spend dollars to go there. Now that the New Market in Kolkata is closed, the shops are closed, there are no more buyers there… We used to buy the market with dollars all the time.”
He said, “A doctor there said that this time when Bangladeshi patients come, the Indian flag will be placed there in such a way that they enter with their heads bowed. You don’t know the people of Bangladesh… You have placed many nations there (in India) who want independence. We don’t want to say anything about these.”
“But you don’t know the people of Bangladesh. Those West Pakistani Punjabis, but even the people of this country… people wearing lungis and carrying stand guns in their hands, have defeated those Pakistanis in the river. We, a country of rivers, canals and canals, a country of floods and droughts, know how to resist the enemies in this situation.”
“They like the cruel Hasina, not Bangladesh”
“They (India) like the cruel Hasina, they don’t like the people of Bangladesh. They don’t want Bangladesh to survive. Today, they are instigating various kinds of things among the people of Bangladesh… inside Bangladesh.”
“But the people of Bangladesh did not fall for their provocations. There may be one or two groups…they have been identified, they have been exposed to the people of Bangladesh…the entire nation has caught the idea that a neighboring country can provoke us here. The unity of our political parties is a steel-hard unity, no one can break this unity.”

“Regarding the Assistant High Commission in Agartala,” Rizvi said, “A radical person forcibly broke the gate of the Assistant High Commission of Bangladesh and entered inside and attacked our staff, they broke the stand of our national flag that was flying in a flutter and tore our flag. When they went to the Deputy High Commission in Kolkata, they said nonsense against Bangladesh… When they went to the Deputy High Commission in Bombay, they said…we are seeing their various anti-Bangladesh propaganda.”

“The decision that the Bangladesh government has taken to stop visas in Agartala…it is the right decision.”

BNP Joint Secretary General Abdus Salam Azad, Volunteer Affairs Secretary Mir Sarafat Ali Sapu, Health Secretary Rafiqul Islam, Jahidul Kabir, Jahangir Alam, and Towhidur Rahman Awal also spoke at the event to boycott Indian products.