Boraigram murder
The prime minister and the rest of her government owe it to the nation to take the Awami League lawmaker from the Boraigram-Gurudaspur constituency in Natore to task for the outrageous remarks about the Sanaullah Noor Babu murder he has just made. And with him, there are other Natore AL leaders who must be asked to explain why they resorted to such audacity day before yesterday, obviously as a way of telling the country that even if the supporters or members of the ruling party commit crimes, they can get away with it. The MP has asked his party men not to worry because nothing will come of the murder case and nothing will happen to the Awami League. We wonder if the lawmaker and the other AL figures in Natore were aware of the repercus-sions of their remarks, made in public and with little of embarrassment.
The lawmaker has been vociferous in informing peo-ple that he has been trying to convince the prime minis-ter that no one from the Awami League was involved in Babu's murder. That flies in the face of reality, for it was a whole gang of ruling party elements who pounced upon the hapless BNP politician and beat him to death. Video footage and eye witness accounts are there to ver-ify the facts. Now the lawmaker has instructed the local police and civil administration to act in line with the prime minister's comments on the situation. Here too we notice the arrogance of power clearly coming in the way of a judicious, uninterrupted exercise of the law. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has only made things worse for herself and for the government. Where earlier she reassured the country that the perpe-trators of the crime in Boraigram would be punished, subsequently she appears to shift from that position and quickly pointed the finger of blame for the crime at the opposition BNP. Is she now trying to tell us that it was the BNP itself which is guilty of committing the crime? We raise these questions because apparently the local MP is convinced that because the prime minister has shifted her position none of the men involved in the crime will now be punished.
This is appalling. And it only gets worse. The law-maker has the temerity to warn the district administra-tion not to harass any Awami Leaguer or anyone from its front organisations. He and other local AL leaders have already decided, in the infinity of their wisdom, that the case filed following Babu's murder is false and fabri-cated. As if that that were not enough, they have asked their followers to tie up the policemen who go to arrest them. That is again a crime, for two reasons. First, they are advising their followers to resist arrest. Second, they are instructing them to seize employees of the republic, hostage-like, and so let the nation know that the law might not take its own course.
We ask that the government, in order to save itself from embarrassment and to prevent the country from lurching towards the precipice, take appropriate action against those who are responsible for the murder. For her part, the prime minister must do nothing, through statements and the like, that could subvert the course of justice in Boraigram.
We would like to point out to the PM that the ultimate challenge is governance and that is how governments are judged and her government will be judged by the same yardstick as well. The indications that the law-maker gives of how the local administration should work are anything to go by then that will be the surest way of weakening the machinery and structure through which she would have to ensure good governance. So there is much more to it at stake than merely exonerating a lawmaker or party loyalists. She has a writ to exercise as the head of government.
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