The July Declaration was one-sided, Leftists allege

Leftist party leaders allege that the July Declaration is one-sided. The declaration was sent to only three parties before publication, depriving all the parties that participated in the uprising. That is why most of the leftist parties did not participate in the event, the leaders said. They hope to discuss the declaration again when the elected government comes. Since the fall of Sheikh Hasina in the mass uprising on August 5, the students had been demanding the July Declaration from the interim government. They wanted the declaration as a document of state recognition, which would be incorporated into the constitution and give legitimacy to the mass uprising. Finally, Dr. Yunus read the declaration on the anniversary of the July uprising. However, representatives of several political parties were not present at the declaration reading ceremony. In particular, most of the leftist political parties boycotted the event. The leaders say that the government had sent the draft of the declaration only to BNP, Jamaat and NCP. Therefore, they did not want to be mere witnesses to the declaration. Revolutionary Workers Party General Secretary Saiful Haque said, it has been somewhat one-sided. Those who were involved in it have been somewhat involved in their political thoughts. The whole process was opaque. There was no need for strict secrecy. It will be sent to everyone, there will be discussions. Then the July Declaration will be based on what we can agree on in common. Alleging distortion of history in the declaration, CPB General Secretary Ruhin Hossain Prince said, it did not fully reflect the aspirations of the July Uprising. He said, I have to mention with great regret that we did not know what they were doing. That means the participants did not know what they were going to read. That is why we did not go to this event. Prince also said, in general, I think it is a distortion of history, a one-sidedness. Some statements of this have been made here. In fact, the relevance that we expected of the declaration could not be maintained. Saiful said, “A kind of irresponsibility has been manifested. Still, I see it as positive.” However, the parties are seeing it as positive as the declaration has finally been published after a long wait. The leaders also said that the left parties will present their opinions when the declaration is discussed in detail before constitutional recognition.