Special Correspondent :
Around 1.5m students, their guardians and also the countrymen are now passing worried time due to uncertainty about holding Secondary School Certificate [SSC] and equivalent examinations.
Being severely pressured following tough programmes enforced by the opposition BNP and its allies, the government has already shifted the exams of two papers, of them one has been rescheduled on Friday, the weekly holiday.
Now anxiety is everywhere whether the examinations could be held in a peaceful situation or not. Apprehension is also rising high fearing that the opposition parties could bring Friday also under the purview of hartal and blockade.
The widespread police action with no political dialogue is no solution to the prevailing crisis aggravating everyday. What is going instead is the blame game – whether BNP’s being more cruel and careless than Awami League.
The government is now categorically blaming the BNP-led 20-party alliance for not lifting the indefinite blockade, which was enforced on January 5 as part of their movement.
From BNP’s side, it is denying responsibility for such brutal activities, like killing and injuring innocent men, women and children.
But the history and statistics to be reminded that such brutalities have been practiced by both the parties. BNP cannot refuse responsibility altogether though it is possible that others are also taking advantage of the crisis situation. It is true that our party politics is not caring people’s suffering. One may look back to events from 2002, when Hasina-led AL opposition called hartal two times. It also called hartal in 2005 during HSC examinations. The same party called hartal for eight days during SSC examinations in 1995. The HSC examinations were deferred for three months due to blockade of AL in 1996.
The AL activists had locked the schools and colleges in 1996. At that time they assaulted the Education Secretary by taking off his cloth in the open street. Although Sheikh Hasina promised the nation on November 15, 1998 that she would never call hartal, even if she goes to opposition bench, her stance changed in 2001. The political patterns of hartal blockade and brutalities have not changed. Awami League blames BNP and BNP blames Awami League. But innocent people suffer all the same. We quoted some statistics only to remind those forgetful ones that the nature and character of politics need to be changed radically if the politics of human misery and exploitation has to be stopped.
Bad precedents must not justify more inhuman incidents. But who cares? That is why the observers say that we have to take a critical view of what happened in the past under the name of politics so that politics acquires a pro-people basis and ceases to be ruthless power struggle.
We can cite more incidents to show that our politics has always been nothing but power struggle. Democracy was given no chance. There were 6 days hartal and 5 days blockade in 1994. Of them, 26 April hartal, 10 September blockade, 11, 12 and 13 September hartal, 27 September blockade, 30 November blockade, 7 and 8 December hartal, 24 December blockade and 29 December blockade.
In 1995, there were 30 days of hartal and 4 days blockade. Of them: 2,3 and 4 January hartal, 19 January blockade, 24 and 25 January hartal, 12 and 13 March continuous hartal, 28 March Dhaka besiege, 9 April hartal in five divisions, 2 and 3 September non-stop 32 hours hartal, 6 September dawn to dusk hartal, 16, 17 and 18 September non-stop 72-hour hartal, 7 and 8 October non-stop 32 hour hartal in five divisions, 16, 17, 18 and 19 October non-stop 96-hour hartal, 6 December Dhaka besiege, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 November dawn to dusk hartal everyday, 9, 10 and 11 December continuous hartal for 72 hours, 17 December dawn to dusk hartal and 30 December countrywide besiege programme. Easy forgetfulness is no answer to the blame game being played. There were 85 days of hartal, one day blockade and 26 days noncooperation in 1996. Of them, 3 and 4 January non-stop 48 hours hartal, 8 and 9 January 48 hours hartal, 17 January dawn to dusk hartal, 24 Januray 11-hour hartal, 24 January dawn to dusk hartal, 27 January dawn to dusk hartal in Khulna, 28 January half-day hartal in Khulna, 29 January day-long hartal in Dhaka, 30 January dawn to dusk hartal in Banshkhali, 1 February hartal at University areas [to resist public exams], 3 February half-day hartal, 7 February hartal in Feni from 6:00am to 3:00pm, 8 February hartal in Feni, 10 February hartal in Rajshahi, 11 February hartal in Sirajganj, 13 February countrywide blockade, 14 and 15 February 48-hour nationwide hartal, 24, 25 and 27 February continuous blockade, 9 March to 30 March continuous 22 days noncooperation.
It has been proved that we do not have political leaders for politically resolving any political crisis. Whereas, only politics helped them to enjoy power and state facilities conveniently without having any political or administrative competence. It is our tragedy.
