DHAKA, MARCH 30: Bangladesh's main opposition figure Begum Khaleda Zia has called upon the people to boycott Indian goods to save domestic industrial factories from closing down. Begum Zia, a former prime minister and chief of the biggest opposition group, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), gave the anti-Indian call yesterday at a political rally in the border town of Nalitabari, 320 km northwest of Dhaka.Accusing the 21-month old government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of opening the country's borders to Indian consumer goods, Begum Zia claimed the economy had been ruined by rampant smuggling of foreign products which had flooded the market driving domestic factories out of business. The BNP recently launched a street campaign from an anti-Indian platform to unseat the Hasina-led Awami League government which came to power for a five-year term by winning the 12 June 1996 general election.
The government has been destroying local factories and businesses at the behest of its Indian masters, BegumZia said urging her party activists and ordinary citizens to obstruct the marketing of Indian goods in the country. Hasina, on her part, blamed the opposition leader for providing highest tariff benefits to Indian goods during her tenure.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
