Give yourselves a break

INVARIABLY, a hartal call has a casual and cruel footnote to it. The armchair bound announcer implores people to put up with the shutdown in greater national interest, imbued with a spirit of sacrifice. What 'greater interest of the country' would be served and how much more of a sacrificial lamb the people thrown to the wolves would have to be, might we ask the hartal imposer pointblank?
Giving pipedreams of better, honest and corruption-free governance, rule of law and pluralistic co-existence sounds like a big hoax. Where even going through the motions of democracy, far less working it in real life, is itself problematic, what else are the people to expect except being emotionally defrauded.
So, the opposition's tougher agitation programme is about partisan interest. Similarly, the ruling party's countering of agitation programme is driven by its self-interest. Thus the people figure nowhere except being caught up in the crossfire between the two parties and thereby getting punished for no fault of their own. Their fault is in electing MPs, so it seems.
The ruling party is, of course, obliged to protect the lives and properties of the people. In pursuit of this given agenda it often applies excessive force against the opposition. This is done both preemptively as well as on an ad-hoc basis.
A glaring instance, however, as to where the line should be drawn had been exemplified by the menacing overstay of Hefajat-e Islam at Shapla Chattar making government intervention inevitable at the eleventh hour. Whereas the action was regarded unavoidable, in the fallout though, the government has drawn considerable criticism in and out of the country for having jailed Adilur Rahman, secretary, Odhikar, for his alleged insertion of figure 61 as casualties on the human rights body's website.
As if the embarrassment to government had not been a cuspful already, what with callow billboard publicity campaign and tugging at the coattails of Prof Yunus' established integrity, the Adilur case was an avoidable ad-on. Due process should have been followed in his case.
In the mainstream, political issues are to be settled politically and not in the street. This commonsensical and potentially effective approach is sacrificed at the altar of a reprisal mentality drawing on the memories of BNP-time persecutions. It is as though 'I have turned one side of my cheek and then another for you to give a slap, and now it is my turn to beat the hell out of you.' But the humour somewhat dries out when you think of the runaway agitation by the Awami League including long spells of hartal and equally ruthless treatment of the then AL in the opposition by the ruling BNP.
Actually, cost of electoral loss has been so spiked that none of the parties can entertain the thought of compromising on a bone of contention because it could be read as a sign of weakness and, therefore, a sure-fire way of running into a debacle in the end. Again, partisan interest is placed ahead of national interest which demands of the ruling and the opposition alliances to hit the middle ground of green pasture of hope for political reconciliation. If rapprochement in a relatively simpler context compared with the very complex dynamics in some of the burning cauldrons around the world be possible in Bangladesh, it would be an endearing accomplishment to be globally shared.
But if we continue with the nihilistic type of politics, the consequences for the country's polity, economy, statecraft and governance could be perilous as never before. Add to the litany, the wakeup call heard from the newly unearthed Ansarulla Bangla Team factor and the possibility of Jamaat and other Islamist parties going underground or operating under a different label if they are not allowed to function normally.
Hefajet-e Islam is on the frontline of making archaic demands with a vote bank that both parties have tried to cultivate but falling short of approving of their charter of expectations.
The plain truth is unless the two major parties settle their differences on ways to hold the national election, militancy could sneak up by default. Where we need to build up the ramparts against attempted in-roads of Talibanisation, we cannot cavalierly play around with infantile politics so as not to nurture the seeds of division lying dormant beneath the social layers.

The writer is Associate Editor, The Daily Star.
E-mail: [email protected]