Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader urged Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to work for the welfare of the country and its people amid the ongoing global crisis.

“To address the crisis ahead, I would like to ask BNP leaders to work for the welfare of the country and its people instead of making intentional poisonous statements against the government. It will benefit the people and enrich the political culture,” he said in a statement.

Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister, said the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war has put the whole world in a crisis amid the fallout of coronavirus pandemic.

All political parties play a responsible role in the democratic state system to deal with such crises, but this nation has never got any responsible behaviour from “the political evil force named BNP,” he said.

Rather, the AL general secretary said, the BNP always tries to mislead the people by carrying out attacks on the stronghold of national unity at critical moments and fish in muddled waters.

Despite this global crisis, the position of Bangladesh is relatively better than other countries as like as it was during the COVID-19 pandemic, he added.

He said Bangladesh’s position is quite good in the reports prepared based on various international studies.

Quader said the government has taken various timely steps under the skilled management and strong leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The economic recession was also going on across the world at the time when the AL assumed power in 2008, but the recession did not affect Bangladesh due to bold role of Sheikh Hasina, he said.

The road transport and bridges minister said Sheikh Hasina means the leadership of turning the crisis into a possibility and an architect of creating opportunity in disasters.

For more than a decade, the country’s people have successfully addressed all the crises under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina, he said.

“However, the BNP leaders have been constantly making shameless falsehood and provocative statements to hinder the united efforts of the people to deal with the crisis,” he added.

Responding to a remark of BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Quader said the BNP has turned into a pessimistic political party failing to keep confidence in the people.

“So, the BNP leaders are constantly making mockery with the nation by telling the stories of despair,’ he said.

The AL general secretary said the BNP leaders are doing this very consciously to create panic among the people and destroy social order.

At the same time, he said, they are trying to mould create anti-government sentiments by misleading the people.

In fact, Quader said, it is indicative of the BNP’s desperate politics of making the peace-loving people self-destructive to gain its wicked political interests.