Bridge the gap ...... for the nation's sake.

THEY came, they saw, they smiled! Ah! What a blessed nation we are! What more do we need? Thank God we survived the incredulity to see this again and again and again on numerous TV channels for the next seventy-six hours. Let us rejoice, brothers and sisters. Let us write to friends and foes abroad that the nation is going ga ga over the two netris meeting one another armed with tailor-made smiles (whoever fixed the smiles on their faces did a neat job).
Anyway, they came and they looked at one another for some fleeting moments and then looked elsewhere. Can't blame them. Sustaining eye-to-eye contact with someone you intend to "liquidate" is an impossible task (who knows what they would have done had they not been in the cantonment!). We may let our imagination go wild for a while. Oh! how I wish we all could read what was going on in their minds at that moment.
Well, we all saw, they sauntered towards one another and they exchanged a few pleasantries, while security personnel stood close enough to tread on their feet. Their display of civility before a thousand pairs of eyes seemed like two adversaries bowing to one another gracefully before engaging in a duel.
So, that night democracy was happy. Advisers were happy. Cantonment was happy. Media was happy. There was a feeling all around that the nation has been salvaged from a grave crisis! There was a feeling that from here on all our miseries would end, prices of essentials would go back to the time of Sher Shah and we shall live happily ever after. If we do not live happily ever after then it would mean we are not patriotic enough or maybe we did not attach any significance to the meeting of the netris.
Who could imagine that it would require such a prolonged melodrama for the two authoritarian leaders to meet at a neutral venue for the cause of democracy!! They supposedly fought for democracy jointly, but they never stood side by side on a dais to talk about the country. A friend of mine pointed out that by sheer "chance" they always meet inside the cantonment! Last time they had met inside cantonment too. Does that mean they do not trust their own civilian areas where they go begging for votes? Ironic, indeed.
The hoopla aside, think for a while about the state of our politics at the top level. Compare this with the situation in the developed countries. Do we ever see leaders of different political parties turning their faces away at the sight of one another? Didn't McCain shake hands with Obama after his defeat? Didn't Hillary congratulate Obama when he was nominated by the party? So, what is wrong with our leaders, especially those two ladies?
It is a matter of great shame that these two senior leaders of two major political parties talk all the time about the welfare of the people and progress of the country but refuse to even greet or look at one another in parliament. How would they solve the numerous problems of the country, if they refuse to recognise the existence of the representatives of almost fifty percent of the total number of voters!
What is more disconcerting is that such childish behaviour of the two leaders has been encouraged by the senior leaders who surround the two netris twenty-four hours. They are known to pour poison in the ears of the two credulous ladies, not only about leaders of other parties but also about those of their own party! It is widely felt that if the senior leaders of the two parties had always talked about building a working relationship with other parties possibly things would not have come to such a pass.
The two netris have met, but they must not nurture the notion that they have obliged us in any way. They must not believe that they have gratified us in any way. They should rather be told in clear terms that the people hold them responsible for not having a decent relationship all these years when the nation faced one catastrophe after another. While floods engulfed vast areas, while militants killed innocent people across the country, while Sidr devastated mile after mile of human habitat, while food became scarce, the two leaders chose to stay in two different poles happily enamoured with their own stubbornness.
Are they keeping in touch since that "eventful" evening? Have they become best of friends since then? Well, we do not want them to play together with skipping ropes but we want them to display cordiality and common courtesy before the nation and international community. Maybe they are not aware, and need to be told so, that the behaviour of senior political leaders in public has direct upshot in the crisis-ridden image of the country. They are making it worse.

Shahnoor Wahid is a Senior Assistant Editor of The Daily Star.