Manifesto for a New Bangladesh
Bangladesh National Citizens Party (NCP)
Dear Bangladesh:
Exactly one year ago today, standing at this Shaheed Minar, we called for the downfall of the fascist regime. Through the immense sacrifice of students, workers, and the public, we achieved an unforgettable victory by defeating the fascist rule. We had a clear one-point demand: we want to abolish the fascist system and establish a new political arrangement. We could not return home peacefully, leaving alive the possibility of another fascist system rising after ousting just one fascist ruler. Instead, on February 28th, we formed your political party, the Jatiya Nagorik Party - NCP (National Citizen Party), a party of students, workers, and the public, to take on the responsibility of fulfilling your intense desire to uproot this fascist system that has long been entrenched in the state and society.
In the past year, you have observed that the NCP has taken a firm stand on your behalf for fundamental reforms, even in the face of opposition from various powerful factions against these basic and structural changes to the state. We believe that without the full implementation of these fundamental reforms, the fascist structure will not be broken, and our '24 mass uprising will not be transformed into a democratic revolution.
In the course of a thousand years of history, we stand as a people of the Bengal delta with a rich and unique culture. The state of Pakistan was established in 1947 as a result of the long struggle of the oppressed peasants and masses of Bengal against nearly 200 years of British colonial rule. But the masses of this country did not find liberation from exploitation and discrimination. Consequently, our independent state of Bangladesh was born in 1971 through the great liberation war, at the cost of the blood of millions of martyrs, with the hope of economic emancipation and establishing a society free from discrimination, following another 23 years of struggle.
But the 1972 Mujib-ist constitution and the subsequent BKSAL one-party rule, corruption, and famine were a cruel betrayal of the people's long sacrifices and aspirations. A one-sided and autocratic ideology was imposed on the people in the name of Bengali nationalism. Since then, despite various ups and downs in state formation, even after five decades of independence, we have not been able to create a state that ensures democracy, equality, human dignity, and social justice. Instead, a brutal fascist regime was established in the country, where democracy was destroyed by recklessly using state institutions for the interests of the ruling party. Suppressing dissenting voices, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, pervasive corruption, and money laundering were turned into a state culture.
The massive student-worker-public explosion in July 2024 was a public mandate for change against this long-accumulated misrule. We must remember that this new independence, achieved at the cost of the blood of thousands of martyrs, did not happen just to change the government. We wanted a change in the system through which fascism is established.
In this July, on the anniversary of the fall of fascism, we, the students, workers, and public of Bangladesh, from Teknaf to Tetulia, from Jaflong to Sundarbans; children, elderly, and women; from tea stalls to doctors, engineers, and tea workers, have been showered with your love. In every corner of Bangladesh, we have heard the expectations of our martyr families and injured brothers and sisters. We have heard about your daily struggles, aspirations, and dreams.
Our party's birth, the birth of the NCP, all our labor, is for building the new Bangladesh of your dreams. Your complaints, grievances, and expectations have deepened our thoughts and enriched our goals. Therefore, exactly one year later, we stand before you again at the Shaheed Minar, announcing the 24-point manifesto for a new Bangladesh, our Second Republic.