Banning costly dress

I agree as Mr. Chowdhury said in his letter that in a democratic country every citizen has his or her own right or freedom of choice. As such the proposal put forward by me for imposing a ban on costly dress is not appropriate according to the letter writer.

Meanwhile, in the following para he has cited the instance of the rich people who are using costly imported cars and which, according to him, are contributing to the widening of the rich-poor gap. The letter writer asked to consider imposing ban on other imported costly products if I do really have a thought of requesting for a ban on costly dresses.

Well, I think, in a democratic society every citizen has some obligations and responsibilities to discharge while enjoying the rights. One such responsibility is to help poor fellow-citizens in mitigating their poverty and suffering through extending financial as well as other support. In other words, the privileged class of a democratic society should help the under-privileged for maintaining societal harmony and social justice.

What we actually do during Eid and other religious festivals is a sort of competition for establishing superiority over one another. This competition prevails particularly among the members of the affluent section of our society. In doing so, they not only squander money but also encourage raising of the money-value of a commodity.

As regards to my proposal for fixing prices of sacrificial animals, Mr. Chowdhury found it not possible because of animals' differences in size and weight. True, but the sacrificial animals too can be graded by the livestock farmers, Vets or Animal Husbandry Graduates by considering certain standard factors. What is needed is effective control.

For example, the government from time to time fixes prices of beef, mutton etc. without mentioning the type of the animal, whether the meat is of calf, cow or bull. But often the meat-sellers claim high price per kg by saying"this is the meat of a young bull"!

I must say that things can easily be changed if we really want so by heart and through appreciation of in-depth human values!

M Zahidul Haque Chairman, Department of Language, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka 1207