Constitutional amendment issue
The national dialogue that the Jatiya Sangsad (JS) committee on constitutional amendment has proposed to hold must be sincere in involving the main opposition and other political parties represented at the JS.
The reported move by the JS committees provides us with at least a glimmer of hope amidst the gloom of prevailing political ambience hostile to any constructive dialogue. The confrontational nature of politics, especially between the ruling Awami League and the Opposition Bangladesh Nationalistic Party (BNP) places a huge challenge before the government to draw the latter into a meaningful dialogue.
In the given situation wider political participation across the political spectrum requires of the ruling Awami League to address as many irritations on the path to a meaningful dialogue as feasible. We would like to believe that the government's overture to the main opposition to represent itself at the dialogue is a serious one.
The ruling party should be persistent in its effort to persuade and engage the opposition in the national dialogue.
In that event, the Opposition for their part should reciprocate ruling party's offer with good grace. Unlike many other issues of day-to-day nature against which the JS has witnessed numberless boycotts and walkouts, the present one is of deeper national significance in which all the parties have an equal stake. It is our sincere expectation that the opposition will be able to judge the issue purely on its merit, and will not politicise it unnecessarily.
Lastly, we hope that both the ruling party and the opposition would be earnest to make the proposed dialogue for constitutional amendment a success.
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