Opposition takes dialogue path

We are heartened that the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has joined the dialogue with the president on Wednesday to ventilate its demand for restoration of caretaker system of government before the reconstitution of Election Commission.
We in this paper have been consistently saying that the government committed a mistake by annulling the caretaker system of government. At the same time it needs to be stressed that the path for settling the issue is not through conflict on the street, but through peaceful means like dialogues.
By boycotting the JS, the opposition has denied itself a powerful platform to make its case on the caretaker system heard. Now that they are hinting of joining parliament they should make it happen. That way they will be taking the issue to the people through a more effective means and put the ruling party to test on its assurances that the opposition is free to place its formula for the government's consideration.
And during the her talks with the president, too, the opposition leader has decidedly expressed her readiness to participate in talks with the government to resolve the standoff arising out of the abrogation of the caretaker system of government.
Only a couple of days back, the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had called upon the opposition to join the Jatiya Sangsad (JS) to present its demands for the caretaker government. We think the PM would repeat her offer to the opposition BNP and vigorously draw it to a process of engagement over the caretaker issue.
We think rather than waging a war of endless words with the opposition, the government will make bold moves to engage the opposition in constructive dialogues to bridge all the differences.
If both the ruling Awami League (AL) and the opposition BNP see each other's points of view and agree on a give-and-take mode, then only the people will be spared the turmoil and offer the political parties opportunity for a broad-based participation in the next parliamentary polls.