After viewing the file footage from TV channels, The Daily Star found that former adviser to a caretaker government Manzur Elahi had not made any such comment about Mahmudur Rahman.

During the CPD news conference, reporters asked Manzur to comment on Mahmudur's slamming of Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya.

Referring to what Debapriya said, Manzur added, "No such blanket comment should be made. There can be debates on information, but he [Mahmudur] should not have made personal attacks on him [Debapriya] calling him a 'liar'."

In reply to a question regarding whether CPD has any political agenda, Mazur answered with an emphatic 'no'.

Then speaking as a matter of fact, Manzur provided the reporters with an instance of how freely people speak about others in the country, saying, "It's a free country."

"Even you can tell me [pointing at a person] that you [the speaker himself] collaborated with the Pakistan Army in 1971." The comment in fact refers to the speaker himself, not to any other particular person.

Manzur then pointed at Debapriya and said, "Many people even call him [Debapriya] a rajakar."

And to point out how ludicrous the comments could be, he further joked by saying, "Probably he is the only Hindu rajakar."