Irresponsible hartal calls

If there is no way to avoid these hartals, they should at least call those with a few days in hand (desperation on our part!). A prior declaration will give us a chance to reschedule our social parties, appointments and other works. Most people came to learn of the latest hartal with less than 24 hour in hand from the newspapers.

So how the opposition can make the public believe that they are calling hartal for collective good?

Feel people's pulse, give up hartal

Shahjahan Ahmed, Dhanmondi RA, Dhaka

My attention was drawn to your editorial of February 16th on hartal and the frank expression of your reader 'AL sympathiser' from Texas who wrote (same issue) a very critical letter against hartal , blaming the AL for using this most undemocratic tool for agitating against the government. Your editorial has brilliantly articulated our sentiments. In the midst of this senselessness, where the AL is hell-bent on hartals despite knowing its damaging effects on the country and the BNP equally hell bent on provoking the AL to hartal, the need of the moment is for well meaning people in either party to speak out not across but within. The need of the hour is self-criticism.

Immediately after the last general elections, Sheikh Hasina was in an aggressive mood and wanted her party to follow her immediately to overthrow the BNP by force on her imaginary premise of rigged elections. The BNP could not have stopped her then, for all it knows is how to provoke. It was her own party members at the grassroots level who asked her to stop, telling her bluntly that they would not support a movement on the grounds of rigged elections, for the elections were not rigged and public would not support the movement.

Sensible people in the AL, like AL sympathiser from Texas, know very well that people hate hartal for all it brings is disaster for the country. They also know very well that the BNP will not hand over power under threat, for it has no reason to do so. It is time that these elements among the AL speak out for the sake of Bangladesh and force the party to seek democratic alternatives to hartals. Similarly, within the BNP, there are people who know that discussion and not provocation is the need of the hour. They should make their voice heard now, again for the sake of Bangladesh, and force the BNP leadership to make efforts to talk with the AL. It seems with top leadership of both the parties now firmly resolved on confrontation, the only way out is divine intervention or for sensible people in either party to make their voices heard. Pressure from within is now the only hope for the country, with apparent madness having overtaken the top leadership of both the parties.

The latest hartal on 16th was called because the police beat three leaders of the AL on the second day of hartal! How more ridiculous can our politicians get? Soon we will hear that the AL has called hartal because some leader in the BNP is better looking than someone in the AL which is unacceptable to the latter!

Hartal, an inhuman practice

Dr. Mahboob Hossain, Assistant Professor, University of Asia Pacific, Dhaka

It is obvious that hartal puts an unbearable load on the economy. Besides, many tragic incidents occur during hartal. I hope two incidents that I witnessed should provide enough food for thought to the politicians.

On October 27, 1990 I was at the bedside of my grandfather at CCU unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, and suddenly I found doctors and nurses attending the patient of the next bed. He had suffered a severe heart attack and I joined with the hospital staff to save the patient but he died. The attendant of the patient was a poor and old lady from Narayanganj. It was about 2:00pm and due to hartal other relatives of the dead man could not come to the hospital. She was crying for help, which created a pathetic scene which I will never forget. In the second incident, my cousin died in March 1996 and her daughter could not come to see her mother's dead body due to continuous hartal. She ultimately came by hiring a tempo, risking her life, to see her mother for the last time, but my cousin was buried by that time. I do not know how many incidents of this kind take place during hartal.

So let us not vote for the politicians who call hartal. Calling hartal cannot be a democratic right because it is enforced by the parties concerned. Remember more than 90% people are against hartal.