EDITORIAL
Govt throws off-gear its talks offer
When the door was ajar, why shut it off?
THE prime minister had offered talks to the opposition for three times in a row. The opposition was keenly awaiting a formal letter of invitation. Public mood was one of expectancy and hope. These have been belied by the ruling party taking a U-turn even as the echoes of a dialogue offer have been ringing in the air.
This is a hugely disquieting anticlimax. It is scary, too as fires are stoked by both sides portending a conflagration.
After the AL Working Committee meeting decided that the prime minister must head the interim administration and that no unelected person would be acceptable in that position, the window for accommodative solution stood shut off. If the central moot point of a nonpartisan arrangement is thrown off the table, what remains to be negotiated about?
The AL has completely forgotten that it had led the movement for caretaker government, aligned itself with even Jamaat-e-Islami, called hartals for a large number of days and to that extent punished people to eventually establish the CTG system in 1995. Now there has been a reversal of role in two ways: first, annulling the very system it had created; and secondly, appearing in the role of an oppressor to deny the opposition the demand for a level-playing field for which it had fought while in the opposition.
The onus, therefore, is on the ruling party to prove its bona fides in terms of a sincere intent, inclusive and forward-looking motivation.
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