Poet and public intellectual Farhad Mazhar has dismissed the legitimacy of Bangladesh's interim government, criticising it for retaining a constitution shaped under former prime minister Sheikh Hasina's administration-even in the aftermath of the July Uprising.
Speaking at a roundtable organised by the Imaginext Foundation at the National Press Club on Friday, Mazhar argued that the political transformation following the July Uprising had not yielded a meaningful break from the past.
"This mass uprising has not led us toward the creation of a new state," he said. "Sheikh Hasina's fascist constitution has remained intact. I do not think that is right."
"I do not consider a government operating under this constitution to be legitimate," he added. "I speak for the people. There is no question of unconditionally supporting this government."
Mazhar positioned his critique within a broader ideological framework, condemning all forms of nationalism-including Bengali nationalism-as inherently fascist. �"bdnews24.com
