| Submit your comments on this article |
| Bangladesh |
| It was unwise, ill-advised and anti-people |
| 2010-11-15 |
| [Bangla Daily Star] Yesterday's hartal called by the BNP to protest the eviction of Khaleda Zia from her cantonment residence was totally uncalled for. It exhibited a total disregard for public convenience, particularly the millions who travel home for Eid holidays. We feel that calling hartal was even more deplorable given the fact that the reason for it had nothing to do with public interest but entirely related to a personal issue, that of the vacation of a government-allotted house by the leader of the opposition. The issue of Begum Zia vacating here residence has a lot of emotional content, particularly to her large number of followers. Rather, it was only expected that the BNP muscle will have great difficulty in reconciling with the matter. In fact total non-acceptance was but only natural. While allowing for the emotional knee-jerk reaction on the part of the muscle, we wonder why the BNP leadership could not dissuade their ranks from the programme considering that one of the biggest religious festivals was just round the corner. No matter how justified one feels one's cause is, and no matter how strong the motivation may be to go for such programmes, when it comes to choosing options public comfort shall have to be given priority over every other consideration. It is very unfortunate that the BNP had totally disregarded the potential hardship that the common man would be faced with due to the hartal, given the fact it is nearly the eve of Eid-ul-Azha, and a good segment of the people of the metropolis and its surroundings had started their homeward journey already. The hartal has caused serious dislocation to the travel plans of many wishing to join their loved ones, given that travelling on the eve of any religions festival, as it is, is fraught with tremendous uncertainties. We reiterate our principled stand against hartal because it is an imposition, amounting to snatching the livelihood of the poor, causing tremendous hardship to the public and shutting down healthcare completely during the period of hartal. There may be times in the future when the BNP may feel provoked to resort to hartal. We would like to assert the need for the BNP not to take such a step however emotion-ridden and sentimentally driven it might get. It would do well to avoid falling into hartal pattern without which the country has been so much better off all these months. |
| Posted by:Fred |