We are appalled to learn that as many as 151 opposition leaders and activists were taken on remand for their alleged involvement ‘in assault on police and cocktail blasts near the BNP Naya Paltan office’. The en masse refusal of bail petitions followed by remand have been unprecedented. It is extra bit more oppressive given that barring six leaders the rest were produced before the court in a shackled condition known as danda-beri, ordinarily reserved for hardened criminals.
When the top three leaders were set on bail on the ground that they were dissuading activists from violence, one would have thought that the government would extend the gesture to other leaders who equally couldn’t have been accused of crimes that ordinary criminals commit.
Some cogent questions arise from this kind of treatment being meted out to senior opposition leaders. First, the sheer number of leaders being placed on remand is unheard of in a working democracy. It has surpassed previous records. Remand is also not something that you take political leaders on as it is associated with harassment and torture. Secondly, this is taking suppression of dissent to a new low.
In all, we have been observing that the government is ratcheting up oppression on opposition leaders on a presumed assessment that such political persons might create trouble. This is not an attitude which is consistent with civility, democratic behaviour and the need to allow opposition its legitimate space.
In the end, we have to say that such sweeping measures cannot yield any positive results, it can only exacerbate bitterness between the two major parties. When the whole nation is urging both sides to sit down to talks for resolving the contentious interim government issue, the government’s current approach cannot be the right response to such a clarion call for negotiated settlement.
Source: The Daily Star
One very conspicuous aspect of our dear PM’s attitude towards the opposition supremo is of entirely personal. She has a charismatic popularity and courage no doubt but she never hesitates to throw poisonous dart to the opposition leader which in a civilized country cannot be conceived of – especially the language she uses against her opponent. One of her adorer Mr. A.G.Choudhury once said the greatest enemy of the PM is her tongue. Even once the HC commented on her to be ‘wrong-headed’. Both the comments seems to be very appropriate and that’s the main reason why there’s no possibility in sight of a reconciliation between the two big parties. And what we have been witnessing is but the by-product of that personal vendetta. Unfortunately the situation has been made by far the more complicated and now it seems this impasse may end only if one of the two warring ladies remove herself from the stage.