Editorial
Antipathy to hartal must be made use of
Time for political parties to forge a common stance
THIS newspaper since its very inception has opposed hartal during the tenure of both AL and BNP. We observed with dismay how the AL and the BNP loudly professed the evils of hartal while in power but called for it when in the opposition. We would like to make it clear, however, that an imposed ban on hartal will be, if anything, self-defeating and counter-productive.
That hartal as a medium of political protest stands discredited for being overused, imposed, thoroughly repugnant to public sensibilities because of negation of free choice and, above all, destructive to the national economy is now a universally acknowledged fact. Historically, whatever rationale hartal has had as a political weapon against autocracy and misrule got lost through its abuse that starkly contrasted with the availability of the outlets for expression of dissent following the restoration of elective parliaments since 1991 and free play of pluralistic press.
The big misfortune for the national polity has been that while in the opposition a political party favours hartal, but the party in power abhors it, and tries to resist it leading to confrontation and spiraling violence. The opposition resorts to hartal deluding itself into thinking that even if people stayed put at home to avert trouble it would go down as a mark of success. And, the ruling party taking to street in consequence, a cycle of violence grips the nation. In the process, both the political parties stand to lose public support.
Not that they don't realise it, they very much do so; for, the Awami League at one time before election took a firm stand against hartal, and publicly committed that even if in the opposition it wouldn't go for hartal provided the BNP reciprocated in kind.
That being the shared legacies of hartals and counter hartals by the major political parties alternating between power and opposition, it devolves on them to first come into a bi-partisan agreement on the hartal issue.
We find it thoroughly unacceptable however that the ruling party in a one-sided bid has placed a bill in parliament to enact an anti-hartal law. This sounds as coercive as imposition of hartal itself, if not more. This furthermore betrays a sense of using brute majority in parliament which seems simply outrageous. The proposed bill incredibly seeks to punish individuals who force people to observe hartal meaning the pickets. What is even worse, top leaders of political parties who call hartal will be proceeded against along with the pickets.
This is certainly not the way to go about it. We are of the strong view that a national dialogue be held with all political parties including civil society leaders by way of eliciting public opinion to reinforce the already-felt need for doing away with hartal. The key element in the whole exercise would have to be provided by the major political parties to come together to forge a common stance against hartal.
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