Trans-shipment and land border agreement with India came into being through your efforts. Would you please share your experience regarding this with our readers?

I think it has been a very good outcome. As a student of Economics, I for one am inclined to believe that this subcontinent should be based on economic and social cooperation. Through trade, through exchange of people, through dissemination of technology and knowledge we can, as a group of people, flourish ourselves than any time in the past. I do believe that through increasing trade and related activities, at one time, we in this sub-continent as amongst these states- Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan-can form an economic union. And to this end this has been a very definite step. AA: How do you see the mixing of religion and politics and what is your view on banning religion based politics in Bangladesh? Religion should be separated from politics. Religion is faith. But politics is an art of making life productive, ensuring right for everyone. Our constitution, in the very preamble, said that this state is created so that every citizen can prosper in freedom. Now this reason of creating this state has no relation whatsoever with any religious faith. Religions in my understanding encourage us to lead a good life, to better our lives from the viewpoint of purity of faith. But then again that is personal, that is essentially centered on the same group of people. But politics is about bettering the lives of everyone and every group of people. So religion shouldn’t be mixed with politics. In history whenever there was an attempt to do this disaster happened. Look at 18th century Europe, look at some of the experiments that underwent in South-Asia and you may as well look at Pakistan.

 What’s your take on ‘The Dhaka Siege’ agitation of Hefajat-e-Islam in 2013?

Hefajat-e-Islam is a religion based activity primarily aimed at securing political strength, this is against the very concept of democracy, this is against the very concept of keeping the religions outside politics. And I think we did a very good job under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to combat Hefajat-E-Islam, to defeat Hefajat-e-Islam and to make sure that they cannot occupy a position of political strength in Bangladesh based on religions. At the same time by controlling Hefajt we made it very clear to everyone that in this country one group of religious people must not have authority to attack another group of religious people. While combating this Hefajt-e-Islam we saw that these people even didn’t hesitate to burn the holy Quran; that means they were bent upon using religion to serve their own parochial interest. This is something which cannot be tolerated in democratic society. This is something for which this state was not created. This’s something which is against the tenets of democracy.

What is your suggestion to fight militancy?

Well, there are two ways. The first, we have to control militancy under law. The law of the country says that in a society administered by law there cannot be any room for militancy. So under the existing law we can combat militancy, we can haul up those who are militants and then we can punish them under law. But at the same time to be victories in the long run I must emphasis that the entire educational and training system of the country should be oriented in such a way so that militancy is discouraged, so that those who favor militancy to serve their own interest are despised upon, looked down upon by the people at large and are not socially encouraged.

You are called the architect of Janatar Moncho. Some people are now critical of the out-come of Janatar Moncho. How do you react to such criticism?

I don’t think that people or some people criticize the outcome of Janatar Moncho. Through Janatar Moncho we made two things clear. First, we made sure that in our country under the constitution rulers must be democratically elected and the bureaucracy will be under obligation to obey those who are democratically elected. That’s something we proved. Second, we proved that bureaucracy should be neutral, neutral in that sense that bureaucracy will not support those who come to power through force. It will be neutral in so far as it will be the duty of the bureaucracy to make sure that nobody in this country is allowed to exercise power through the barrel of the gun.

When you’re home minister you assured that the killers of journalist couple Sagar-Runi will be brought to justice but nothing has happened so far. What’s your comment?

Well investigation takes time. I told the journalists at that time that we’ll take every attempt to make sure that those who are guilty of this crime are brought to book. I’m told by the people working in the home ministry that the investigation, and a very thorough investigation, is almost complete. I’ll be looking forward to seeing this investigation complete, to seeing that actual culprits are brought to book and are punished in accordance with the law of the land.

The Vision 21 stands for the freedom of press and editors. But the civil society is critical of this. What’s your feeling?

I believe in freedom of press but then again, if this freedom gives some interested people the power to harm other people by belittling them by defaming them, I think the people who suffers they must have every right to make sure that they are compensated. The freedom of press does not mean the freedom to preach falsehood, to attack people personally, to destroy the very principle on which this state is based. If someone says that this group of people are corrupt and they should be punished and to punish them statecraft should be exercised by those who happens to be In possession of guns then definitely that is not only libelous, I would say that is crime against humanity. And these people should be brought to book in such a way, such a manner that nobody in future dares to exceed the limit.

It’s alleged that the recent large scale pro-motion in civil service is disproportionate to the availability of senior positions. How it might affect the administration you think?

I don’t think it’s going to affect the administration as such, as a matter of fact administration as of now happens to be based on necessity. We device organizations and we set the number of personnel that various organization need and in accordance with this determined number the positions are filled in by appropriate personnel. And given the fact that over years through increase of activity of the government, the size of organizations at each and every level has increased. So you need more people for these organizations. There’s nothing wrong in that. What’s needed of course is proper training and recruitment. What’s needed is through proper training and proper recruitment people are allowed to go up in accordance with their ability. What’s needed is that ability is appreciated. And I think government happens to be in the right path, going ahead with these principles.

How would you weigh up the current five year plan against the five year plan you formulated during your tenure as the state minister of planning from 1997-2002?

Yes, under the guidance of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina I formulated the fifth five year plan. And the sixth five year plan couldn’t be framed by the BNP-Jamaat government, people who were in power at the time. It had to be framed by Sheikh Hasina in her second term. And now we are at the end of sixth five year plan period. We have already formulated the seventh five year plan. I think these are good plans. These are based on the constitution, these are based on the success we already achieved. And these plans, the fifth, sixth and seventh, have emphasized the role of private sectors, have taken measures to encourage private initiative, private creativity. I think that’s a good step. And then finally I would say that we emphasized on the reduction of poverty and these three plans have given high importance to all measures that go to reduce poverty. Poverty is reduced in Bangladesh. A

Thank you for your time. It was a pleasure.

This Interview was conducted by Muhammad Imran and  published in The Asian Age daily newspaper on February 26, 2016.