Hartal day

By Ashfaque Siddiqui, On e-mail
27 April 2006, 18:00 PM
The number of hartals being called by the opposition is quite obnoxious, to say the least. It makes sense to have Friday holiday, Saturday hartal day and 5 other working days! I understand the democratic right to call a hartal to protest and demonstrate, but a line needs to be drawn.

For the benefit of all, I would suggest either call a hartal in Dhaka and arrange a rally with 100,000 to 200,000 people, that sends a message (like the anti-war protests in major cities around the world every year), or have a completely non-violent hartal that sends an even stronger message. That would really make the police and the establishment look bad (which seems to be a key motivation), similar to the Gandhian non-cooperation movements. The amount of damage caused to our businesses, school and university goers and shop owners is just not acceptable. I'm just surprised that these people never call a hartal protesting political hartals.