No light at the end of tunnel

Nothing has been able to break the ongoing political deadlock.

Death of at least 83 people, untold sufferings of public, damages to economy and students' academic life, and national and international communities' outcry and call for dialogue to end the stalemate could not melt the ice between the ruling Awami League and the 20-party alliance led by its archrival BNP.

Both the rival camps claim they are fighting for democracy and people's rights. Ironically, it's those very people they claim to be fighting for have become the worst victims of the turmoil persisting for the last two months.

The BNP-led combine remains rigid on continuing the nonstop blockade and enforcing frequent hartals come what may. Their aim is to force the government to hold an early parliamentary election under a non-partisan administration.

The AL, which returned to the power for the second consecutive time through the one-sided January 5 election a year ago, vows not to give in to any pressure. It seems determined to foil the opposition alliance's street agitations through administrative measures, instead of making political efforts.

Held hostage by the political standoff, everyone is searching for the answer to one vexing question -- when and how the situation will be normal. But nobody has the answer.

Even many senior leaders of both the AL and the BNP do not know about the strategy of their own camps. They do not have a voice in their own parties on this issue.

Exposing the sheer hollowness of the country's democracy, they commented that everything now depends on the wishes of the two top leaders -- Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia.

And what did their rigidity bring about?

As many as 82 people, 65 of them had no political affiliations, were killed in arson attacks and other forms of violence since January 6.

In addition, extrajudicial killings increased alarmingly. At least 41 people fell victim to this menace in the last 60 days of the blockade.

Deeply worried by the escalation of the violence, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon sent separate letters to Hasina and Khaleda in early February. He urged them to engage in constructive dialogue to peacefully resolve the current political crisis.

A group of eminent citizens of the country on February 7 sent letters to President Abdul Hamid, Hasina and Khaleda and made the same demand.

And last week, 16 foreign envoys stationed in Dhaka wrote to Hasina and Khaleda, urging them to hold talks to find a way out of the crisis.

Prime Minister Hasina and her colleagues in the cabinet and the party are vehemently refusing to hold talks with the BNP.

The 20-party combine on the other hand has been enforcing hartals on all the working days since February 1, on top of the indefinite blockade.

The ongoing blockade is the longest-ever nonstop political agitation the country has ever experienced.

The previous major agitations took place in 1990 against the autocratic Ershad regime, in 1995-96 and 2006 against the then BNP-led governments, and in 2013 against the AL-led government.

But none of those was as long as the ongoing one and not so many lives perished in any of those.

The BNP-led alliance sets a record today by continuing the blockade for 60 consecutive days, a record that may get bigger as there is no apparent sign yet of bringing an end to the stalemate.