Calling hartals
I have read many letters in your columns about hartal. Everyone writes about the bad impacts of hartal and suggest that the BNP should refrain from calling hartals, as it has detrimental effects on our economy. Of course, I agree with all their arguments. But what surprises me is that nobody says a single word about the hartals which were called by the AL in the past. The AL called more hartals than the BNP did, although Sheikh Hasina declared that she would not call any hartal when her party would be in the Opposition. But soon after that she forgot what she had said and called hartals in a row, when she was the opposition leader. Did she think then that her party would never be in the opposition again? What was on her mind when she said that?
So, why blame the BNP? We should blame the AL first for calling so many hartals. Khaleda Zia never said that they would not call any hartal. Finally, I want to say that we do not want any more hartal, as we, the common people, suffer the most during hartals. But at the same time, calling of a hartal is a democratic right of the opposition, only they have to practice this right judiciously.
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