Exercise in falsehood by state and incumbents
THE state and the Awami League-led incumbents seem to have resorted to falsehood over the killing of Biswajit Das, a tailor who has punched and kicked, hacked and stabbed, to death by some members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, an associate organisation of the ruling party for students, during the countrywide road blockade programme of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led opposition alliance on Sunday. While video footages of the brutality by the BCL leaders and activists were aired by private televisions channels on Sunday, and even the photographs and identities of the perpetrators were published by different newspapers over the next two days, the police filed a case accusing unidentified people of killing Biswajit. Subsequently, however, according to a report front-paged in New Age on Tuesday, the investigation officer of the case said the police were examining photographs of the incident published in different dailies, to identify the youths involved in the killing and had ‘started drives to arrest the killers.’ The BCL leadership, meanwhile, claimed that they had no relationship whatsoever with the assailants although media reports confirmed that they are members of the ruling party’s student front, and a key AL leader insisted that the ruling party would not take any responsibility for the killing and, by extension, the killers. Worse even, while eight people have been arrested in connection with killing, as claimed by a minister, they don’t include the ones caught in photographs and video footages punching and kicking, hacking and stabbing Biswajit.
Such exercises in falsehood by the police and the political incumbents—needless to say, these are directly correlative—spring very little surprise, though. Ever since it assumed office in January 2009, the AL-led government has virtually given leaders and activists of the lead ruling party and its associate organisations, especially the Chhatra League, a licence to engage in whatever crime they wish to. Such indulgence has, in turn, sent a clear message to the police and other law enforcement agencies to leave the troublemaking BCL operatives alone. As such, there have been cases galore whereby BCL leaders and activists have literally gone away with murder, sometimes of opposition leaders and sometimes of people of their own ilk. What, however, is more worrisome is that the incumbents seem to have decided to keep employing weapon-wielding operatives of the ruling party and its front organisations to repress the opposition, in cahoots with the law enforcers. Simply put, any course correction from the incumbents looks unlikely to come by, at least at this point in time. Such obstinacy bodes ill for the country as it gets pushed to the brink of yet another round of sustained political uncertainty and concomitant social and economic disorder.
Given the largely successful countrywide road blockade programme on Sunday and hartal (general strike) on Tuesday, the opposition political parties seem to have been able to gain considerable public sympathy and even support for its political stance, although they need to realise that they risk losing such sympathy and support if they continue with the violence and vandalism witnessed in the past few days. In such circumstances, if the incumbents believe that the opposition will cede ground in the face of excesses and atrocities by leaders and activists of the ruling party and its front organisations, with significant help from the law enforcers, they may be completely estranged from the reality on the ground. Hence, they would do well, both in their own interest and the greater interest of the country and the people, to listen to the call from different quarters, local and foreign, and seek peaceful resolution of the current impasse.
New Age | Newspaper
THE state and the Awami League-led incumbents seem to have resorted to falsehood over the killing of Biswajit Das, a tailor who has punched and kicked, hacked and stabbed, to death by some members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, an associate organisation of the ruling party for students, during the countrywide road blockade programme of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led opposition alliance on Sunday. While video footages of the brutality by the BCL leaders and activists were aired by private televisions channels on Sunday, and even the photographs and identities of the perpetrators were published by different newspapers over the next two days, the police filed a case accusing unidentified people of killing Biswajit. Subsequently, however, according to a report front-paged in New Age on Tuesday, the investigation officer of the case said the police were examining photographs of the incident published in different dailies, to identify the youths involved in the killing and had ‘started drives to arrest the killers.’ The BCL leadership, meanwhile, claimed that they had no relationship whatsoever with the assailants although media reports confirmed that they are members of the ruling party’s student front, and a key AL leader insisted that the ruling party would not take any responsibility for the killing and, by extension, the killers. Worse even, while eight people have been arrested in connection with killing, as claimed by a minister, they don’t include the ones caught in photographs and video footages punching and kicking, hacking and stabbing Biswajit.
Such exercises in falsehood by the police and the political incumbents—needless to say, these are directly correlative—spring very little surprise, though. Ever since it assumed office in January 2009, the AL-led government has virtually given leaders and activists of the lead ruling party and its associate organisations, especially the Chhatra League, a licence to engage in whatever crime they wish to. Such indulgence has, in turn, sent a clear message to the police and other law enforcement agencies to leave the troublemaking BCL operatives alone. As such, there have been cases galore whereby BCL leaders and activists have literally gone away with murder, sometimes of opposition leaders and sometimes of people of their own ilk. What, however, is more worrisome is that the incumbents seem to have decided to keep employing weapon-wielding operatives of the ruling party and its front organisations to repress the opposition, in cahoots with the law enforcers. Simply put, any course correction from the incumbents looks unlikely to come by, at least at this point in time. Such obstinacy bodes ill for the country as it gets pushed to the brink of yet another round of sustained political uncertainty and concomitant social and economic disorder.
Given the largely successful countrywide road blockade programme on Sunday and hartal (general strike) on Tuesday, the opposition political parties seem to have been able to gain considerable public sympathy and even support for its political stance, although they need to realise that they risk losing such sympathy and support if they continue with the violence and vandalism witnessed in the past few days. In such circumstances, if the incumbents believe that the opposition will cede ground in the face of excesses and atrocities by leaders and activists of the ruling party and its front organisations, with significant help from the law enforcers, they may be completely estranged from the reality on the ground. Hence, they would do well, both in their own interest and the greater interest of the country and the people, to listen to the call from different quarters, local and foreign, and seek peaceful resolution of the current impasse.
New Age | Newspaper
