Ban these hartals

This time around, an Islamist party has resorted to hartals to protest against the court verdicts regarding war criminals. It is shocking to see that a party that wants to do politics in this country is trying to save the people who acted against the independence of our country. The positive aspect is that people have totally rejected this spate of hartals. They weren’t scared to come out of their homes this time. The government has also taken precautions for saving public property from the enforcers of hartals.

However, this doesn’t mean that people will not be scared of hartals in the future. The party in power, which is now working to prevent hartals, will resort to hartals themselves when they’ll be the opposition. This has been the fact since the independence of Bangladesh. Whenever a party has lost power, they have always used hartals as a tool to depose the party in power.

Since our independence, for about two decades, hartals were quite useful for the opposition. But after the 90s, this political tool became nothing but acts of destruction. The essence of a political or any other strike, as we fathom, is that the parties will urge the people to observe strikes in favour of something that they believe in.

If people also think the reasons behind hartals are logical, they might want to respond to their call and stay at home. However, the hartal-callers these days have become the hartal enforcers. They are not giving a damn about what the people want – they are simply doing what they want.

Exploding bombs, setting buses full of passengers on fire, uprooting railroads, and fighting law personnel cannot be the right way to observe political strikes or put forward your cause. Hartals have now become a tool for violence, death, maiming, mutilation, and loss in business. Hartals have become the promoters of poverty in the country.

FBCCI said Bangladesh loses Tk10,000cr in one day’s hartal. World Bank said Bangladesh’s production has suffered a loss of Tk11,000cr due to hartal violence. CPD said investments worth of Tk240cr is lost due to hartals. Also, think about the unthinkable loss the nation’s students have to bear.

We’re quite sure that the enforcers of hartals themselves do understand the fact that this so-called political tool can no longer harm or unnerve the government. Rather, this tool has become an anti-people program. Hartals harm the people – they get people killed, and harm our economy.

We’ve also seen that anti-hartal programs multiply the intensity of violence even more. 27 law personnel have died in the past three years for such programs. The loss to the families of these police personnel cannot be measured. Hartal violence has killed our children and women. Many have been left physically challenged for life.

The world’s first hartal was staged more than 100 years ago in 1906. It was in South Africa and was lead by Mohandas K Gandhi to protest the Black Act in 1906. In the past, it was used for the welfare of a country. In those days, the politicians weren’t either power or wealth-mongers. But these days, greed has become the prime driving force behind all kinds of political showdowns.

The businessmen as well as the common people have been demanding an end to these hartals by formulating laws. The politicians have also sometimes talked about it. Recently, a parliamentary committee discussed how to stop the enforcement of hartals by formulating laws. The representatives from both the government and the opposition have agreed to go ahead with this.

They want the bill to be in the parliament. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also had given her consent in favour of such a bill. The bill was put up by a Jatiya Party MP in 2010. But, something is surely wrong somewhere. After the discussion of the standing committee, nothing has changed yet. The law ministry found a few contradictions within our constitution, and now the process has been stalled.

We want to see a proper solution to a problem, which is harming the people and the country. If there’s any doubt about banning hartals, we can go for a referendum on this issue. Let’s see what the people mandate about hartals. Let’s settle this once and for all. We want to see our politicians care for our wants and needs.