Metro rail and the public interest
The Bangladesh air force caused quite a bit of a stir a few days ago when it came forth with its views relating to the controversy over the planned metro rail network in the nation's capital. It sought to explain to the nation why it thought the network would benefit citizens if the route went by way of the khamarbari area. That was a fine expression of sentiment. But the surprise for us is in the fact that a defence force suddenly thought it wise to acquaint citizens with news of all the good that could accrue from a project undertaken in the public interest. Interestingly, the air force said not a word about the uproar caused by its reservations about the original plan of the metro's following a path around Bijoynagar. Air force flight operations, it was said at the time the reservations of the air force came to be known, would be at risk if the original metro plan was followed through.
It is not a pretty picture, for reasons that should be obvious. The country has been informed that the prime minister has acceded to the air force request that the metro rail be re-routed through khamarbari. Of course, it is the right of the head of government to decide any and all issues having a bearing on the public interest. The bigger matter here, though, relates to the authority of government to take a decision and then see it enforced. Democratic governance is all about the nation and its interests as a whole. It is never about a part of the governmental structure (and the air force is part of that structure) taking upon itself the role of a pressure group, leaning on the political leadership and influencing policy makers into shaping objectives or changing decisions already taken by the administration. The prime minister and her cabinet colleagues ought to have made it known to the air force that while it is all right for an arm of the government to come up with its sus having the metro rail follow the original plan. The reasons are clear. In the first place, with so many structures already in an area the air force would like to keep free of the metro, there can hardly be any reason to suppose that the security of the air force or of the overall armed forces will be in jeopardy once the metro is in place. In the second, acceding to the demand of the air force could prove rather costly, in this case a clear threat to the environment around and on the premises of Parliament. One needs little wisdom to comprehend the damage that will be done to the Jatiyo Sangsad area should the metro be made to pass through khamarbari. The architectural splendour of the Jatiyo Sangsad took a hit when in 1981 an emotion-driven government decided to bury the slain General Ziaur Rahman in what had been marked out by Louis I. Kahn as a park hugging a lake. However you might wish to take a walk there today, you cannot escape the feeling that the place has mutated somewhat into a large, single-grave cemetery. And there is too another cemetery on the other side of the parliament structure. Not long ago, very proper questions were raised when the government of the day cheerfully went into the job of building homes for the speaker and deputy speaker of parliament on the Jatiyo Sangsad premises.
Must one more blow now be struck at one of our last remaining emblems of aesthetic grandeur? Speaker Abdul Hamid has given us, somewhat, reason to think that the Jatiyo Sangsad just might be spared the humiliation of seeing part of its land, with all the canopy of trees there, commandeered by the metro rail only because the air force has put its foot down on the original plan. The speaker informs us that he will not allow parliament land to be lost to the metro. One does hope he will be as good as his word, that he will be able to convince the prime minister that having the metro go by or across parliament land will degrade not merely the Jatiyo Sangsad but also the environment. For her part, the prime minister assures us that the metro will not affect Parliament and its surroundings in any way. Should it not have been a much better proposition for her to have assured the air force that a metro under the original plan would pose no security risk to it or the army?
The charm of elected government comes through its ability to exercise authority over every department and every facet of administration. This beauty is marred when elected government is seen to be ready and willing to wilt under pressure. That is a dangerous condition to be in. And it is because something of the irresolute comes into the business of administering a country.
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