Editorial
AL GS's remarks
Avoid mixed signals
The ruling party's General Secretary has said that the opposition's latest hartal was in fact not called on the issue of the caretaker government system or the power crisis and price hike of essentials, but to hinder the process of the trial of war criminals and the proceedings of the corruption charges against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's sons.
The Awami League's GS has apparently tried to read motives into the opposition's hartal at variance with stated objectives of the BNP of making the hartal call. We do not know whether he speaks for the government or the party, but coming on the heels of the AL chief's reiterated offer for talks with the BNP, the GS's comments can only create confusion in the public's mind.
Where one of the prime duties of any political party is to inform parties that it is seized with the issue at hand and to politically educate the people, leaders of the ruling party seem rather to be misleading them by sidelining the issues raised and highlighting those which were not. While we do not support hartals for any reason, to imply that the opposition had no issue or had different ones from those suggested, raises questions about how grounded in reality the AL GS's comments are.
The primary issue of the last hartal being that of the caretaker government system, the government would do well to take it into consideration, do everything possible to engage in dialogue with the opposition as the party chief has offered and reach a reasonable and acceptable conclusion of the matter.
Hartals are disruptive for the economy, society and politics of the nation. Just as the opposition should abjure the path of aggression, the government, too, should be in tune with reality and try to grapple with the issues that are of concern to the nation.
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