Bangladesh In Crisis

A Country's Charred Hopes It is indeed difficult to tell how many people have been murdered so far in the last few days in incidents where passenger buses, both public and private, are set to fire. What is quite unfathomable about them is that the law enforcers have miserably failed to nab any one of the perpetrators of such dastardly acts. The recent one in this long and sordid list took place near Shahbag where the attack was apparently orchestrated from both inside and outside the bus. Nineteen passengers were burnt, of whom a student called Nahid succumbed to his injuries. What however boggles our mind is that no precautionary step has been taken by the law enforcing agencies to thwart such attack on moving vehicles, especially when an opposition-called blockade has already claimed 20 lives. We know what happens after a bus is set to fire: both the major political parties condemn such barbaric acts; the Awami League (AL) quite vociferously blames it on the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which quickly points finger at its rival citing an incident in 2006 where a bus was set to fire using gown-powder in front of Hotel Sheraton at the heart of the capital. The AL might be thinking that photos of charred bodies of bus arson victims will help it to win some sympathy votes, proving it to the electorate that the opposition parties lack human values. But at the same time each photo of severely burnt victims of arson highlights the government's failure to provide security to its ordinary citizens. It is indeed no less than clear that the government has failed to ensure security to the general public. Instead of security-checking passengers while boarding buses or guarding key places in the city to make vehicular movements safe, the government has arrested some senior leaders of the BNP on charges of vandalising public and private properties. The nature of violence allegedly committed by them needs a certain level of physical fitness, which these leaders, in their late sixties and early seventies, are unlikely to possess. To make matters rather ironic, the BNP high command is famous for calling one general strike after another and passing hartal days in the comfort of their armchairs in the party's safely locked headquarters. The arrests and denial of bail to top BNP leaders (despite a request made by the Ambassador of one of Bangladesh's major development partners) also gives the wrong signal; that the AL-led government is not serious about holding a dialogue to solve the present political impasse. It is not rocket science that the BNP will see any government move in the eyes of suspicion while some of its top leaders are arrested or are not given bail in cases that are no less than ludicrous.

The BNP, for its turn, needs to take steps to shun the path of lawlessness. It needs to do more to engage the government into a meaningful dialogue so that the nation can have a free, fair and inclusive election in due time, and power transition remains peaceful. There is no denying that incidents like Shahbag in a way depoliticise the masses as they highlight once again that people's lives actually do not matter to the AL and BNP, and any kind of reconciliation is not possible as long as the two ladies keep the nation hostage to their whims.