Playing politics with misery

In the days since Dr. Azad was attacked, we have expressed our views clearly, harshly and unequivocally in condemning this dastardly act. This speaks of our qualities of the heart when an act like this does not fail to move our souls, for indeed the incident reached beyond our hearts and touched our souls. But then there were other things we have done with this act that, now with Dr. Azad on way to recovery, we should reflect upon to see whether we have acted rightly or otherwise.

Let us take our political leaders. The PM, to deflect any blame for this attack on her government, blamed the AL. The AL, not to be undone, blamed the BNP with equal conviction. Our intellectuals went overboard and demanded that the public forcibly "overthrow" this democratically elected government, harmonising their views with the AL that has seen this unfortunate incident as an opportunity to call for the BNP's ouster.

If an attack on a university professor can lead to such reactions from those upon whom we have placed our destiny, it is little wonder then that we as a nation are going nowhere. We have heard from these leaders about the academic qualities and distinctions of Dr. Azad. But I have no doubt that very few of them would be able to tell us much about his works, for people who indulge in such negative politics cannot have much time for reading the books of writers like Dr. Azad.

I was, nevertheless, heartened by the spate of letters that appeared in these columns. The writers expressed shock, sadness, contempt but almost all did what the politicians and the intellectuals failed to do; rise above politics and look into the matter dispassionately. It is time that these politicians and the intellectuals take lessons on how to act from the people they are supposed to lead.

There are people evil and intolerant amongst us as there must be in such a large population, but their actions should not lead our politicians and our intellectuals to support hartals or provoke people to take law into their own hands and try and force out a democratically elected government.