Our political culture

Democracy unfortunately has become a joke when power is centred in and around the leaders. To paraphrase the famous saying on democracy-- it is only: "For the leaders, of the leaders, by the leaders". The poor unfortunate "people" are just numbers in the voting game! Once voting is over; it is winner taking all. The winning party goes about with only one objective-- "Make hay while the sun shines"! The next crucial objective when about three fourths of the term are gone, is to ensure victory in the next election. For attaining this, might, money and muscle power are freely used to elbow others out ! We do not have "rule of law", rather " law of rule"-set by the powers that be. What we have is pseudo -autocracy and nothing else.

We remember the proverb " Dark deeds are done in the dark". Our politicians today however believe in "dark deeds are done in broad daylight"; so that all can look, listen and learn. It is impossible to catch the culprits and their mentors; for the simple reason that they have great clout. Take the case of JMB and their associates, the culprits are there, but their mentors are missing. In case of the AL meeting bombing and murder of Mr. Kibria even the culprits are missing; what to say about the mentors.

Official words were " It could be AL, India or international conspiracy," but not the religious bigots and their associates who were earlier let loose by the ruling party , for politics of expediency. No wonder, one shudders to think what will happen when these bigots win majority seats.

Poverty, illiteracy coupled with blind faith are the potpourri of fundamentalism; and we have this in no small measure! Is anyone worried about it?