Director General of the Press Institute of Bangladesh (PIB) Faruk Wasif on Wednesday said July has failed itself.
"The political leadership of July has failed in various ways. Therefore, those who had the greater share of responsibility must bear the greater share of blame," he said while speaking as a special guest at the "July Dialogue" titled "July Uprising: Expectations and Achievements of Building an Equal and Planned Bangladesh" organised by the Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP) in the capital.
Faruk said, "In the past 15 years, politics, institutions, and the economy of Bangladesh have been destroyed. The system of governance we were under cannot be explained in words like monster or fascism."
"When the caretaker government was abolished in 2011, it should have been understood then that this government would no longer hold elections. But our so-called civil, progressive, developed, and humane people did not give any final warning. The BDR massacre happened, and the Kashimpur prison was built with pride. Within these, there was a roar, which we did not understand."
He added that such a regime was being built in this country, but as time went on, collaboration with them did not decrease; rather, it increased. Those who protested in the country until 2014, in the election of 2018, they signed booklets saying why we want Sheikh Hasina. Recently, when Abul Barkat was arrested for looting banks, 121 people protested against his arrest, though he destroyed a prestigious institution called the Economic Association. Yet we will sit beside many of them. Then where did the uprising happen?"
"A generation has emerged whose illusions have been shattered. With slight economic development, the middle class had expanded. Unbeknownst to us, outside the so-called civil society, another generation had grown up. They are from madrasas, small towns, private universities, or the new urban youth groups."
Junaed Islam, a student of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Jahangirnagar University, shared this experience at the event about the incident of the Chhatra League attack at Jahangirnagar University.
Bangladesh Institute of Planners' (BIP) President Professor Adil Muhammad Khan was in the chair of the event.
University teachers, journalists, and people from various professions also attended the event along with the students who participated in the July Uprising.
While speaking, Adil Mahmud Khan said, "July is a month of immense bloodshed. There will be much criticism about it, about what we gained and what we did not. But July was inevitable. Without it, Bangladesh would not have been what it is today."
Meanwhile, Shamsi Ara Jaman, mother of the July movement martyred journalist Tahir Zaman Priyo and general secretary of the July Martyr Memorial Foundation, said that since the day after Priyo's death on 19 July, the family has been subjected to harassment through false cases, threats, and attacks on their home. Later, in demand for justice for this killing, the family filed cases at Dhaka's New Market police station and the International Crimes Tribunal.
Professor Golam Rabbani of the History Department of Jahangirnagar University said, "During the July Uprising, he tried to fulfil his responsibility as a teacher to stop the massacre on students."
"The psychology and mindset of the people turned against the past government, and as a consequence, the July movement happened. Many uprisings have taken place in our country, but there has not been a political uprising. As a result, the inequality could not be eradicated," said BUET Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Abdul Hasib Chowdhury.
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