Very bizarre and frustrating things are happening in the country one after another. Everything seems to have been let loose and things are falling apart. Take for example the incident of a student beating his teacher, one Utpal Kumar Sarkar, to death, allegedly hitting him with a cricket stump on his head. Utpal Kumar Sarkar was a lecturer of political science at Haji Yunus Ali School and College in Ashulia and also the chairman of the college’s disciplinary committee. The teacher reportedly asked the student named Ashraful Islam Jitu not to walk on the school campus with his girlfriend. But the student did not like the advice and acted in a way that killed his teacher.
But the teacher-student relationship has always been, in this land like the other places of the world, that of respect, love and friendship. But it is not so now. The deviated and dirty politics of the country has not just destroyed the environment of education in universities and colleges, but it is also spoiling the minds of the tender school students as politics has entered schools also.
Coincidentally, the acting principal of the Mirzapur United College in Narail Sadar Upazila on June 17 was forced to wear a garland of shoes before an agitated public under the very watch as well as active support of the police. Even for argument’s sake, if we take it for granted that the principal had committed a crime by supporting a Hindu student who spoke in favour of Nupur Sharma in a Facebook post, such humiliation of a teacher not just hurt the principal but the whole teacher’s community in the country as well. But there is no law that allows the law enforcing agency of the country to mete out such a punishment in such a horrific manner.
The chaotic and hopeless scenario is prevailing everywhere. When the government hospitals and health centres in the capital are failing to fulfill the expectation, the treatment facilities outside the capital are just abysmally disheartening. Some days ago the burn-injury patients from the Sitakundo shipping container depot fire had to be transported to Dhaka as they could not be given treatment in Chattagram, the second largest city of the country.
Go to the Rangpur Medical College Hospital and in its wards you may spot a ‘badamwala’ (hawker selling nuts) with a ‘dala’ hanging from his neck crying ‘ei badam’, ‘ei badam’ as if this hospital is a railway station or a cinema hall. Not to mention the extremely dirty environment inside the hospitals. When the senior doctors make a round in the morning, efforts are seen to look everything in the hospitals is in order, but once their round is over, everything is back to square one.
Coming to politics, for a decade now, people have not seen free, fair and participatory polls at the national level, yet the ruling party is calling themselves to be a democratic government. When the ground reality in every sector is so pathetic with people’s morality and common sense has taken a nosedive, we are hearing the endless stories of ‘development’ from the government ministers. It is, in fact, the government itself is failing to establish moral precedent before the people.
Moreover, when those who govern do not follow the dictates of law, we can hardly expect that the common people would abide by law. As a result, chaos and confusion are everywhere. If the existing politics of the country does not change qualitatively we can hardly expect change in other places.
Muscle politics has been exerting an undue influence on young ones and those who are close to the government. We have governance in chaos and corruption. We have to think about how this situation can be changed for the better.
