By Shamindra Ferdinando

Presidential candidate Nuwan Bopage has strongly defended the ouster of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Appearing on ‘Salakuna’ on Hiru, Monday (12) night, Attorney-at-Law Bopage emphasised that the people had chased away PM Hasina as she had pursued an IMF-led agenda inimical to her country.

Bopage said so when Hiru anchor Chamuditha Samarawickrema, while referring to a spate of recent media reports, asked him whether the US had influenced the long serving Bangladeshi leader over her government’s refusal to accommodate US military base on their territory. Hasina has alleged US involvement in her ouster.

Bopage said that such claims could have been accepted if the deposed leader hadn’t implemented IMF programmes at the expense of the people, murdered four workers and moved court against 23,000 others, not subjected Bangladesh to Indian influence and annihilated the Opposition through dictatorial means.

Comparing Hasina’s rule with that of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the leading Front Line Socialist Party (FSP) activist said that the people had forced the latter to flee as he ruined the economy.

The panel of Hiru journalists reminded Bopage that Bangladesh had erupted in June this year following the Supreme Court reinstating a 30% government job quota for descendants of the freedom fighters.

Bopage acknowledged that the dispute over job quota controvesy had sparked riots..

The US State Department has denied the former Bangladeshi leader’s accusations.

Jana Aragala Sandhanaya, comprising a section of those involved in the March-July 2022 protest campaign against Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has fielded Bopage as its candidate. When Hiru asked how Jana Aragala Sandhanaya could field him as it was yet to receive Election Commission recognition, Bopage said that he would contest on the ticket of Samajawadi Janatha Sansadhaya.Acknowledging the JVP had been involved in Aragalaya, from the very beginning, the top spokesman for the breakaway JVP faction said that they weren’t involved in the alleged bid to seize control of Parliament.

Commenting on Jathika Jana Balawegaya heavyweight Lal Kantha’s recent declaration that Aragalaya could have taken over the Parliament if the so-called Galle Face protest leaders threw their weight behind the move, thereby advanced the operation to the next stage, Bopage insisted that wasn’t a collective decision taken by those who executed the ‘Gotagogama’ campaign.

Bopage alleged that the JVP, in spite of being part of Aragalaya, was acting on its own. According to him, there had been an ‘operation committee’ at the Galle Face site that comprised 60 to 100 persons. Responding to another query, Bopage said there hadn’t been a leader though there were many groups. Bopage identified Samajawadi Shishya Sangamaya, Viplawawadi Shishya Sangamaya, Youth for Change and Samajawadi Tharuna Sangamaya as some of the groups involved in the ‘operations committee.’

Bopage denied Chamuditha Samarawickrema’s assertion that the JVP and the FSP were the most active in Aragalaya. The presidential candidate said that the UNP and its breakaway faction SJB as well as many other groups worked in unison for the regime change operation. Bopage claimed that MP Patali Champika Ranawaka’s people, too, had been there.

Bopage denied accusations that the JVP, FSP and other political parties and groups exploited genuine grievances of the hapless and public protest campaign to engineer externally-backed regime change operation. The lawyer said that their primary objective had been to send Gotabaya Rajapaksa home, cause collapse of what he called the Rajapaksa family rule and the third objective was to advance Aragalaya.

The presidential candidate struggled to explain the composition of the decision-making body of their party. Hiru questioned the legality of Bopage’s selection as the composition of the decision-making body remained debatable.

Bopage said that political parties moved in about a week after the public launched Galle Face protest, on April 9, just over a week after the violent incidents outside the then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s private residence at Pangiriwatte, Mirihana.

Asked to explain the Aragalaya strategy after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s ouster, Bopage said that they planned to call for a conference with ‘some representation’ from Parliament and representatives of Aragalaya, as well as public representation, with the objective of formulating of a new Constitution.

Bopage said that the Constitution would have been subjected to a referendum.

Responding to a barrage of questions regarding their strategy, Bopage said that the ‘operations committee’ never planned to take control of the Presidential Secretariat and the Prime Minister’s Office. Bopage asserted that the JVP operated alone while denying there was a plan to move into the Supreme Court. Moving to Rupavahini, too, hadn’t been planned, Bopage said, while denying any talks with the JVP regarding the move against Parliament.

Bopage claimed that they intervened at some places to keep the operation in line with the agreed agenda. The lawyer pointed out that the Parliament couldn’t be dissolved by taking control of it.

Bopage said that the UNP quit Aragalaya as soon as their leader Ranil Wickremesinghe received premiership on May 12, 2022.