Hartals

Photo: Afp

This refers to The Daily Star's reporting of the hartals and protests that went on in Dhaka this week. The overwhelming rhetoric of the articles seem to be biased towards the protesters, as if they were peace activists. Charging the police for having instigated battle and claiming that 'Tens of thousands of people in the capital suffered due to the police barricades' are further legitimising unruly and disruptive criminal behaviour by protesters. There is nothing wrong with being anti-government or establishment, but to challenge the basic principles of dignified social behaviour in order to take a stance on the government is not acceptable. Who will pay for the rickshaws, cars, trucks set on fire, the public property destroyed by the mobs?

I don't hear DS ever reporting any leader on the ground (whether AL, BNP, Jamaat, JP or otherwise) calling for calm during protests, never is it mentioned that an MP stood before the mob behind her/him and prevented violence. It takes great leadership to truly believe in a cause and take it through, our 'leaders' lack both the faith in their cause or the courage to see it through; there are those who have marched on our streets before us who were able to maintain the dignity of the protest, of the hartal, they have struggled and have won. Today, we have bus loads of people brought into the city, paid to wreak havoc and chaos over petty, pathetic, criminal political squabbles which have little to do with our lives.

Calling hartal is a democratic right, but compelling others to observe it by picketing cannot be, as it is against the basic principles of democracy. So is there anyone who can file a writ petition to the court for a ban on picketing on hartal days ?

Badal, On e-mail