Editorial
Assault on physician
When will such highhandedness end?
The public is fed up with reports of the ruling party's cadres and its affiliated wings riding roughshod, not only over their political opponents but over other functionaries of the government and in certain cases, the general public as well. In the recent case a doctor had to bear the wrath of an activist of the AL's student wing of Charvadrasan, Faridpur.
Reportedly, the Jubo League cadre of Charvadrasan unit was availing of the treatment at the local Upazilla Health Complex for an injury he had sustained during an intra- party brawl. And the victim, a doctor at the health complex, who was treating him, had refused to comply with the illegal demand to certify the injury of the said activist as serious when it was actually only a minor one. The result indiscriminate beating by the activist which caused severe physical injuries to the doctor. We wonder since when party activists have become qualified enough to ascertain the nature of one's own injury?
It would not be wrong to suggest that this incident is a fairly common phenomenon and happens randomly in many parts of the country. Party cadres going berserk for being asked to pay for what they have eaten, students seeking exemption from paying bus fares on the ground of their links to the ruling party and such highhanded behaviors are common occurrences. And the less we say about capture of tenders boxes and chasing away other bidders by these cadres the better. These are no longer news.
This paper has been calling for the AL to rein in its party cadres since the very day the AL came to hold the reins of government in 2009. For some inexplicable reasons, there seems to be reluctance on the part of the AL to do so. And the AL has been very much the worse for it.
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