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Dhaka: Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Senior Joint Secretary General Advocate Ruhul Kabir Rizvi has described former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as “the most despicable and hateful fascist in history,” claiming that her rule surpassed even some of history’s most notorious authoritarian regimes in terms of corruption and plunder.
He made the remarks on Wednesday after visiting an exhibition in Gulshan, Dhaka, showcasing photographs from the July Mass Uprising and the BNP-led movements over the past 17 years.
Rizvi said that while fascist leaders such as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini remained in power through force and were responsible for ethnic persecution and the deaths of millions, there was, in his view, a fundamental difference between them and Sheikh Hasina.
According to Rizvi, Hitler and Mussolini sought to make their own nations stronger, whereas Sheikh Hasina’s primary objective was to loot the country, siphon money abroad, plunder banks and the stock market, seize government land, and establish her relatives overseas. “That is why Sheikh Hasina is the most despicable and hateful fascist in history,” he said.
The BNP leader further alleged that fascism often emerges through political manipulation and claimed that what he called “Awami fascism” rose to power in Bangladesh through deception.
He accused the Awami League of shedding the blood of ordinary people to make its hold on power permanent after assuming office through fraudulent means.
Rizvi also alleged that from 1972 to 1975 and again from 2009 until August 5, 2024, students from primary schools, secondary schools, colleges, and universities, along with people from various professions, were killed. He claimed that even children were shot dead by law enforcement agencies and that restaurant workers, fruit vendors, journalists, and many others lost their lives during the student-led mass movement.
Describing the July Mass Uprising as a “great awakening,” Rizvi said it represented an “explosive release of the people’s suppressed strength” against oppression. He argued that Sheikh Hasina failed to recognize this public sentiment and instead repeatedly relied on what he described as “staged and fraudulent elections” to remain in power.
He further claimed that, apart from a handful of countries, the international community did not support the government, despite its continued hold on power.
Rizvi concluded by saying that people from all walks of life who fought to establish democracy, freedom of expression, press freedom, and judicial independence would continue to participate in that struggle in the future.