Minister slaps rail staff
I draw your attention to the news item in your daily (Sept 1), "Quader slaps rail staff” which any law-abiding, self-respecting and sensitive person anywhere in the world would find disturbing, offensive and in violation of human rights and human dignity. Restoring order and discipline in the communications ministry (or for that matter, in any ministry or government department) under the vigilance of the minister concerned is laudable, but verbal or physical abuse of any employee by any minister or high official is simply a criminal offence. In any country with some semblance of the rule of law (including Sri Lanka and India), the minister would have been arrested for resorting to physical violence and most definitely he would have lost his job, and the victim would have got due compensation.
I am not disputing the fact that Obaidul Quader caught the rail employee "red-handed" for resorting to corruption, but were not some people caught almost red-handed, while they were carrying sacks full of money to an "unknown destination" in the middle of the night in the recent past? And we know no action has yet been taken against those people from that ministry. Bangladesh badly needs the rule of law, not double standard in the exercise of law and most definitely not physical violence by law enforcers, let alone by a minister.
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