Editorial
Accusing opposition leader
Potentially counterproductive
We are aghast at the news of lodging of a case by a public prosecutor on behalf of the government against the leader of the opposition Begum Khaleda Zia in connection with Monday's skirmishes between villagers and the law-enforcers in Munshiganj. What is particularly disquieting is accusing the
opposition leader of inciting violence when she was not even there.
It all speaks of lamentable insensitivity of the ruling party towards the issues that affect the lives of the common people on the one hand, and utter disregard for the rudimentary sense of decency and ethics in a polity that we claim to be democratic.
The ruling party should have known that in a democracy, it is only expected of the opposition that they would criticise the government's omissions and commissions, if any. And here was a case where, we think the government provided enough grounds for criticism by having undertaken a project with huge national implications without going through a proper environmental impact assessment and analysis.
When environmentalists and local people themselves articulated their concerns that the project would affect their livelihoods, besides the ecology and environment. What was the opposition leader's fault in echoing public sentiments which by and large were arrayed against the mega-project in Arial beel? How is one to equate criticism of a government's move with incitement to violence? We fail to understand.
We believe this has had the portents of eroding the credibility of the government on an issue that required more informed and judicious approach overall. We think lodging a case against the opposition leader on at best a flimsy ground of incitement to violence would prove to be counterproductive.
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