Make parliament effective
Our government always says that it wants to make the parliament an effective forum by ensuring the opposition's participation. But this is nothing but rhetoric, which has no practical value. The main opposition gets no chance in parliament to speak about people's sufferings. The Daily Star in its 19 September issue reported that the speaker rejected all the 28 notices, submitted by the opposition lawmakers demanding holding of discussion on the August 17 countrywide serial blasts, the 21 August grenade attack on an Awami League rally, and price hike of essentials. Does the government think that these are not important issues? Or, does it want to avoid its accountability to the people?
This attitude is not democratic at all. Every time, before beginning of a session, the government blames the opposition for not joining the parliament, but it never tries to convince the opposition that the required time will be allotted for discussion.
On the contrary, the ruling party lawmakers threaten the opposition activists. A few days ago BNP Secretary General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan said, "Come to parliament or face police baton on the streets." A cabinet minister and a key policymaker of the ruling alliance could say this!
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. So how can we believe that this government is not an autocratic one?