The March That Never Was

Organized by the Facebook group "Moja Loss", the Lungi March to Baridhara park was meant to be a peaceful protest against the ban on rickshawalas donning lungis in Baridhara Residential area.

About 14,000 people signed up for the event, the turn-out did not match those numbers; but there was a huge gathering at Banani Kemal Ataturk Field of people dressed in lungis. Most of them had clumsily tied it on top of pants, about 100 cyclists were also ready to ride along with the march. A few foreigners were also in the crowd, proudly wearing their lungis. The colorful array of people were a little confused, as to why the march was not starting. As it turns out, the police had locked the gates of the field and were pleading the masses to not go down to Baridhara park, as it was a diplomatic zone. However, this raised the question, why were the organizers of the event not aware of this snafu? The whole gathering could have been done in an organized way - which would have drawn far more attention from the print and electronic media. That didn't happen. It also seemed as if the organizers failed to reach a prior understanding with the police as regards to what routes could be taken. Sure, it was fun but in the end, all it amounted to was chaos. The ban had already been lifted so the only thing left to do was to celebrate our culture and the right to wear lungis. The festive air of this Lungi March was enjoyable, and perhaps this is the new form of protest the youth are undertaking, but this gave scope for criticism about the integrity of the movement.

All in all, the effort no matter how noble it's motive might have been, fell flat on its face. It was more about dressing up in your newly purchased lungi rather than identifying the legal and unconstitutional nature of imposing trousers on rickshawalas.

Photo: Kazi Tahsin Agaz Apurbo