Editorial
The BNP's call for hartal
Let it pass off peacefully
WE would like to remind our readers and everyone else that this newspaper has as a matter of principle opposed hartals as a means of achieving partisan political aims. We of course have never lost sight of the fact that at certain stages in our national history, particularly in the 1960s, early 1970s and in the movement against autocracy, hartals played a role in galvanizing public opinion against misrule and bad politics. Since the return of elected government in the early 1990s, however, we have held fast to the idea that hartals should be abandoned if the cause of democracy and of deepening its roots was to be served. It is from this perspective that we believe today's hartal called by the BNP is unacceptable.
The reasons the BNP has cited for today's hartal include a demand for normalization in the supply of electricity and gas. There is little question that citizens have been suffering owing to the crisis in these two areas as well as others. The BNP's demand for a regular supply of electricity and gas rests on weak ground because of its own failure, when it was in government between 2001 and 2006, to ensure a proper and uninterrupted provision of these vital components of civic life. Morally, therefore, the BNP cannot truly lay the blame for the crisis in these sectors at the door of the present government because of its own inaction on this score. It has to be acknowledged that the crisis is acute and requires time to be solved. Are we to take it that the BNP will call hartals repeatedly as long as a solution is not arrived at?
The BNP has alleged repression by the government on its activists and workers. If indeed there are instances of such behaviour on the part of the government, we will demand that they be inquired into and stopped altogether. Having said that, we feel that especially after the Chittagong mayoral elections, an opportunity has arisen for the political opposition to contribute to an enrichment and expansion of the nation's democratic base. Had the opposition lost the Chittagong elections through a manipulation of the results, it might have had a justification in calling a hartal. But that did not happen, which only adds to our feeling that today's hartal is not only politically misdirected but also does not have the remotest justification. Our appeal, to the BNP as well as all other political parties that believe in the pursuit of democratic politics, is that they get out of this hartal mentality as quickly as they can. Hartals nowadays can only be a sign of politics going bankrupt or politicians running out of ideas.
We would like to make it clear to the government that it must avoid any high-handedness while dealing with the opposition on the streets. A knee-jerk reaction to the hartal can only worsen conditions. And to the BNP our appeal is unambiguous: do not create a situation where the government may be provoked into any extreme action. And please resist the urge to compel or coerce citizens into observing the hartal.
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