Current Affairs
Out of Touch
As one strike after the other is crippling the country, the government, it seems, is a little out of touch with the ground reality
Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir
Principal Mozammel Haque Sarker, chairman of Kazipur Upazila Parishad of Sirajganj, believes that the government, in its final year of office, will not be able to take the necessary steps to keep the political situation under control. In his analysis, the prevailing political situation will be worsened day by day and the opposition parties will take advantages of it.
Mozammel, also vice-president of Kazipur Upazila unit of Awami League, has made the remark at the beginning of March while talking to this correspondent. He has relied on his political experience and wisdom to make the comment. His remarks and assessment proved right on March 11 when police, on the directive of Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir, entered the BNP's central office, broke down doors, "recovered" explosives and arrested 157 leaders and workers. The police claimed they did it to "ensure public safety and security of the police."
There was no doubt that policemen crossed the limit that day. Some senior ruling Awami League leaders even criticised the police actions. But the Home Minister openly claimed that police arrested "criminals". It is also interesting that the police, faced with severe criticism, also later released three senior BNP leaders Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Sadek Hossain Khoka and Altaf Hossain Chowdhury. The three leaders were labeled as "criminals" by the home minister, but were released the next day, proving the police actions unjust.
The home ministry however could not change its character. The ministry on March 13 came up with a press note justifying the police's actions blindly as it did in the past to defend all wrongdoings of the police.
The press note put all the blame on the BNP leaders and activists who gathered at a rally on March 11 in front of the party office. As per the press note, the unruly BNP men exploded eight to 10 homemade bombs, went on a rampage by creating obstacles in the streets, set fire to rickshaw vans, threw brick chips and stones towards nearby buildings and damaged public properties and threw homemade bombs and brickbats at the police.
Not only that, according to the press note, a number of homemade bombs were thrown at the policemen from BNP central office, forcing law enforcement agencies to conduct a search inside the party office to capture the culprits. During the search, police recovered 10 homemade bombs and arrested leaders and workers for their alleged involvement in destructive activities, described the press note.
But the press note did a blunder by citing an incident that took place on March 1, 2004 when the police in a similar fashion barged into the Awami League office at Bangabandhu Avenue, mercilessly beat than opposition men and recovered some homemade bombs from the AL office. It said that the bombs recovered earlier from other places were shown to AL chief Sheikh Hasina and she was told that those were hurled from the AL office.
Police brutality has seen an alarming rise. Photo: Palash Khan
By citing the incident of 2004, the home ministry tried to portray how the then BNP-Jamaat led government abused police force against the opposition parties. But it did not serve the purpose. Mentioning the incident rather proved that the culture of abusing police force has not changed. The present AL-led government is doing what the past BNP-led government did in 2001-2006.
What did the government achieve from police excess? The home minister knows well. In the past, particularly, since the restoration of the democracy in 1991, almost all the home ministers largely damaged the image of their governments by their unruly attitudes and aggressive use of force against the opposition parties. The way the present home minister has been speaking it gives us the impression that he has waged a war against the opposition parties. It will in no way yield any positive result for the government. Rather, the more the home minister and his police force suppress the opposition parties, the more the opposition will get political mileage. And the present home minister should not forget the fate of his predecessors. Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, the home minister who ordered the attack on the AL office in 2004, was arrested on March 11 from BNP office by the order of the present home minister. Other home ministers including Abdul Matin Chowdhury and Mohammad Nasim had to face police brutality when they took to the streets after their governments were voted out of power.
The March 11 police action however provided the BNP-led opposition a weapon to enforce a two-day countrywide shutdown on March 18 and 19. And another shutdown in Dhaka district on March 21. People suffered a lot due to frequent strikes. Businessmen are worried about their business. They are searching for a way out. But the way some ministers, including the home minister, and some ruling AL leaders have been speaking, it really surprised people. They have been claiming that people rejected the opposition's 'illogical' hartals and that people's lives were normal. Bangladesh Television (BTV), despite being run with public money, has been nakedly abused by the government to spread the lies in its news reports on hartals. BTV is spending a lot of time and labour to defend the ministers and AL leaders' claims about hartals. Do people believe the BTV's news reports? Do people believe what the ministers and AL leaders are saying about hartals? Do the ministers and AL leaders really believe what they are saying? If they do not believe what they are saying, then why are they asking people to believe in them?
It is however clear that the ministers and AL leaders who have been desperately trying to hide the facts, by making the claim that the opposition's hartals were rejected by people, are not taking the political crisis seriously. It means that they will not take any step soon to overcome the crisis. This means that they will make more blunders in the coming days when the opposition parties will start enforcing more agitation programmes against the government. In their final year, all the successive governments since 1991 have failed to keep the situation under control. They resorted to brute force to suppress the opposition parties which always boomeranged for them. And all prevailing signs suggest the current AL-led government will not be an exception, it will go down the path of its predecessors. And principal Mozammel and millions of others' prophecy might be proven right.
The writer is Senior Reporter, The Daily Star.
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