Kansat tragedy & relevant thoughts

One cannot but wonder how the government holds fast to its cavalier attitudes towards its responsibility that the citizens of the land entrusted upon them with their mandate in the election. And these people who were brutally killed by the police were the part of this land, and they also cast their votes during the election with a fond hope of enjoying equality of some sort.

More tragic is the fact that this turmoil had been looming large for quite a long time. Civil society, media and others kept on informing the government of the dire consequences that it was bracing for but unfortunately the government decided to remain indifferent to all this, as if it were not its duty to take preventive action against such atrocities. And a brutal and tragic incident has taken place that took the innocent lives. Surprisingly and outrageously, no attempt has been made by the government as to its explanation of the failure on its part. No resignation (a practice that seems to be a far/distant dream in this land though), no termination along with severe punishment has taken place yet- - God knows if there is any chance at all. This is the land where we've seen monga; people were dying of starvation and we were talking about poverty alleviation here in Dhaka. We have seen Kansat and we are talking of high hopes for the people of this poor land. A strange nation we are turning out to be these days.

One need not talk about the sky-high price spiral of essentials, an all engulfing corruption and the incidents that are in no way humane around us. We people are held captives by the opportunists around ussome are making a sad and bad use of our life in the name of religion, some are depriving us in the name of national prosperity and still others are depriving us of our basic rights in the ways that are more than complex and hypocriticalalas, we are not doing anything to resist them.

We strongly urge the government to take stern measures against the wrong doers.

"Is 1971 back?"- I just thought it after reading the news of carnage at Kansat perpetrated by police. It was the headline for many days in the newspapers. Meeting up the basic demands of the citizens is the main duty of a government, i.e. elected by the people and run with the tax money paid by the people. No doubt, demanding a smooth power supply is one of the key rights of the people for better living. According to our constitution, it is our right and if we are deprived of this we can raise our voice. But the reality has come in a different way in Kansat. Police attacked the villagers who were demonstrating in the streets over their right of getting electricity. It is a problem that the government could solve by sitting with the villagers peacefully. But the government did not pay heed to the complaint of the villagers and it took a draconian measure that resulted in the deaths of 20 innocent people.

The tendency of the ruling BNP government to oppose any legal demand of citizens through application of force is quite noticeable. On the statement of the villagers, the mindless killing by the police at Kansat went beyond the cruelty of Pakistani soldiers during the liberation war ( Prothom Alo). In addition to the killing of innocent people, there have also been rampant attacks on their homes and their properties.

It seems the government is trying to turn Bangladesh into a police state.

Golam Rosul Maruf, University of Dhaka