Sarjis wants Professor Yunus as PM for five years, what is NCP’s position?
Sarjis Alam, the chief organizer (north) of the National Citizens Party (NCP), has expressed his desire to have Professor Muhammad Yunus, the chief advisor to the interim government, as the prime minister of an elected government for five years. A Facebook post by Sarjis expressing this desire has created a lot of discussion. But does his party, NCP, agree with Sarjis Alam’s desire?
This reporter spoke to six important leaders of the NCP on this issue. They said that the post Sarjis made on Facebook about Professor Yunus is completely his personal opinion. It is not the party position of the NCP. Some of them also commented that it is inappropriate for Sarjis to make such a post from the position of the party leadership.
On March 29, a day before Eid-ul-Fitr, NCP leader Sarjis Alam posted a post on his verified Facebook account. There, he wrote, ‘Professor Dr. I will always have the desire to have a statesman like Muhammad Yunus as the Prime Minister of an elected government of Bangladesh for five years.’ More than 361,000 users have reacted to this post as of 9:30 pm today, Saturday. Of them, 167,000 users have given ‘love’ and more than 30,000 have given ‘care’ reactions. That is, most of the users who reacted are supporting the issue. In addition, more than 39,000 comments have been made on Sarjis’ post, both for and against.
Sarjis Alam’s post has created various discussions. After Sarjis’ post, many more Facebook users have posted on Facebook for and against this issue. The issue is also being discussed in the political arena.
When asked about Sarjis’ post, NCP Senior Joint Convener Samantha Sharmin told Prothom Alo on Saturday, ‘What Sarjis wrote is his personal wish. This is not the party position of the NCP.’ Another senior joint convener of the NCP, Ariful Islam Adeeb, said the same thing. He said, ‘We think that it is inappropriate for Sarjis to make such a post from the position of the party leadership.’
This reporter spoke to Sarjis Alam on Saturday afternoon on this issue. Stating that his desire for Professor Yunus is personal, Sarjis said, ‘I spoke about the elected government, not the current government. I have no objection to the interim government remaining as long as all stakeholders think it is reasonable. Professor Yunus is a global leader. From that place, I wrote about my personal desire on Facebook. This is not the party position of the NCP.’ NCP leader Sarjis Alam wants to contest the parliamentary elections from the Panchagarh-1 parliamentary constituency consisting of Panchagarh Sadar, Tentulia and Atwari upazilas. Before Eid, on March 24, he went to his local Panchagarh with a fleet of more than a hundred cars for an election campaign, which sparked widespread discussion and criticism. BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir also criticized Sarjis’s motorcade.
After that, Sarjis did not do any more ‘showdowns’ in the area with his motorcade. Sarjis returned to Dhaka on Saturday after completing public relations in the area during the Eid holidays.
In response to a question about how he views the discussion and criticism about the motorcade, Sarjis Alam told Prothom Alo, ‘I did not expect so many cars to be there. Many people have brought cars, many of my school, college and childhood friends have brought cars along with five to seven people from their circle. That is why the number of cars has increased to more than a hundred. But I think it has given people an election atmosphere. They haven’t been getting this vibe for a decade.’
On this, Sarjis further said, ‘Many people thought that BNP would be completely unrivaled, that no one else would be able to compete with them. They were already used to this culture. We will change these old cultures. But if we go straight to a completely new approach, we may become irrelevant. People want to see a competitor who can have an influence close to the BNP candidate.’
