AMID blame game between the opponent political parties centering the pre-polls clashes, Awami League candidate from Dhaka-3 Constituency Nasrul Hamid Bipu has shown an exceptional gesture of cordiality by visiting BNP counterpart Gayeshwar Chandra Roy on Wednesday. Gayeshwar Roy was injured during a clash at Chunkutia in Keraniganj on Tuesday. Newspaper reports said Nasrul Hamid, also State Minister for Power and Energy, instantly made a phone call to Gayeshwar to inquire about his health. Later, he went to see for himself Gayeshwar’s condition on Wednesday night. Gayeshwar thanked Nasrul for visiting him, and said he would not go for any legal action. However, Gayeshwar’s daughter Arpana Roy has alleged that her father could not continue his campaign freely, and it proves that a level playing field for the election is yet lacking.
We have several times urged all the stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies, to ensure a free, fair and peaceful election. After deploying the members of Armed Forces on Monday, we expressed hope that the situation would improve as expected by Election Commission and other political parties. Unfortunately, the violence has taken a critical turn in different areas while some opponent political party leaders, including BNP’s Standing Committee Member Gayeshwar Roy, were attacked. Such attack on political leaders, he may be from ruling or opposition party, is shameful and equally condemnable. The nicety and sympathy shown by Awami League leader Nasrul Hamid could be considered as a rare example in our politics. Actually, this is the spirit of democratic ideals. In line with the spirit, the opposition and ruling party should work jointly to ensure a violence-free election.
Only three days are left for election. We must say, this is the proper time to take all-out stringent measures against the violence. Only the EC will not be able to ensure a violence-free situation during and after the polls. In that case, the top leaders of the political parties would have to take responsibilities to harness their “over-enthusiastic” activists. Otherwise, the situation could go out of control if vested quarter takes a chance to deteriorate the law and order situation targeting the election results.
