BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi has called for boycott of Indian products to protest the desecration of the national flag of Bangladesh and the attack on the Assistant High Commission in Agartala, Tripura. Rizvi threw away the Indian saree given by his wife Arjuman Ara Begum in front of the National Press Club in the capital on Thursday. Later the leaders and activists set fire to that saree. The event was held under the banner of 'Buy Desi Products Kine Ho Dhanya'—to encourage the boycott of Indian products and the use of domestic products.
Rizvi said, 'Those who tear my country's flag, we will boycott their country's products. Our mothers-sisters-wives will no longer buy Indian sarees. They won't buy Indian soap, they won't buy Indian toothpaste, they won't buy anything from India.' He said, 'We will not be their (India's) face. We will boycott Indian products.'
Rizvi also said, 'My wife had an old saree in my house. My wife gave me an Indian saree, I said give it today, she gave it. This is the Indian saree, I threw it in front of you today (when it was thrown, the activists set it on fire with anti-India slogans). Not an Indian saree anymore.'
This BNP leader said, 'We will wear Tangail saris, we will wear Rajshahi silk, we will wear Comilla khaddar.' At this time the workers started chanting 'Boycott Boycott, Indian products'.
This BNP leader said to the Indians, 'You are doing various propaganda against us, you don't like us. Still want to buy your stuff from us? People of Bangladesh are not people to bow down. We shall eat one meal, and yet we shall not budge.'
Rizvi said, 'Many Indian journalists, many political leaders say that you (Bangladesh people) do not get treatment if we (India) do not come here. I ask, do you give treatment for free… do you feed a cup of tea for free… you do not have this precedent. People of Bangladesh spend dollars and go there. Now Kolkata's Newmarket is closed, shops are closed. There are no more buyers. Markets were always bought in our dollars.'
Rizvi also said, 'One of the doctors there said, this time when Bangladeshi patients come, the Indian flag will be placed there in such a way that they enter with their heads down. You do not know the people of Bangladesh. You have placed many castes there (in India) who want freedom. We don't want to say anything about these things.'
Rizvi said, 'They (India) like the cruel Hasina, they don't like the people of Bangladesh. They don't want Bangladesh to survive. Today they are inciting various kinds of incitement among the people of Bangladesh…inside Bangladesh. But the people of Bangladesh did not give in to their incitement. There may be two groups, they have been identified, they have been exposed to the people of Bangladesh. A neighboring country that can provoke us here, has captured the whole nation. The unity of our political parties is a solid unity. No one can break this unity.'
BNP Joint Secretary General Abdus Salam Azad, Volunteer Affairs Secretary Mir Sarafat Ali Sapu, Health Affairs Secretary Rafiqul Islam and many others spoke on this occasion of boycott of Indian products.
