Tale of 2 fake press releases
FROM PAGE 1
Raushan. The signature on the press release does not belong to Raushan Ershad,” said a JP leader close to Raushan.
Raushan and Kazi Mamun did not respond to our calls and text messages requesting their comments.
The development comes when GM Quader is in India on a three-day visit. He is scheduled to return home today.
It also comes three days after Raushan’s meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the Gono Bhaban. At the meeting, Raushan assured Hasina that JP will provide all the support and cooperation that the PM may need.
After that meeting on Saturday, Raushan announced that JP will take part in the election under the current government.
Both the press releases were sent out from two WhatsApp groups that are run by pro-Raushan groups.
One release said Raushan took charge of the post on advice of the party’s senior leaders and to bring pace in the party’s activities. It also said Raushan will perform her duties as chairman till the next council.
The other release claimed five JP leaders, including four co-chairmen, wrote to Raushan in December last year expressing their lack of confidence in GM Quader. According to the release, Raushan gave her consent to the letter yesterday.
Names and signature of JP chairmen Ruhul Amin Hawlader, and lawmakers Kazi Firoz Rashid, Syed Abu Hossain, Salma Islam and Nasrin Jahan were used in this release.
Hawlader and Kazi Firoz declined to comment.
But Syed Abu Hossain in a video message said Jatiya Party is united under the leadership of its chairman GM Quader and with the blessings of Raushan.
He also categorically dismissed that he signed any paper urging Raushan to become the party chief replacing GM Quader.
“The statement [press release] is fake,” he said.
Hours after the news was published in different media, Jatiya Party Secretary General Mujibul Haque Chunnu in a press release said those who were expelled from the party spread the fake news.
“No such incident happened, and there is no scope of happening such thing,” he said.
“I already spoke with the JP leaders who were said to have signed a letter to Raushan Ershad, and they told me that they did not sign any such letter,” Chunnu added.
According to the JP charter, no one can become the party chief as per their will. Nor can anyone relieve any leader from the party in such a manner, he noted.
A section of JP leaders fear that such a move from JP leaders loyal to Raushan might split the party ahead of the election. They also fear that similar moves will recur in the coming days in efforts to take control of the party before the polls.
There are discussions within the Jatiya Party about Raushan Ershad’s close ties with the Awami League government.
GM Quader, on the other hand, has been criticising the government for quite some time now.
JP sources told The Daily Star that pro-Raushan group has been planning to oust Quader from the party helm.
Conflict between pro-Raushan and Quader groups intensified when JP Parliamentary Party last year wrote to Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury to make Quader the Leader of the Opposition in parliament, replacing Raushan.
The Speaker has not made any decision on the matter yet.
Presently, Quader is the deputy leader of the opposition in parliament.
Quader earlier on several occasions alleged that the government is using Raushan to create division in JP to put pressure on him.
The conflict between Raushan and Quader surfaced after Ershad, Quader’s brother and Raushan’s husband, died in July 2019.
Since then, the rift between the pro-Raushan and pro-Quader groups has been making headlines quite frequently.