Sufferings of people during hartal

By Ahmed Sujon, Dhaka
18 July 2006, 18:00 PM
During the recent Aborodh (seize) and Hartal (strike) programmes of the opposition, the media gave a good coverage of the pickets and police action on them. It seems that the mission of the media (both print and electronic) was to compare the strength of the police with that of opposition pickets. TV reporters stated that the opposition might take a more violent course to overthrow the government. Even the call for strike and seize was publicised widely.

All the agitation programmes were launched in the name of the people and the government is facing those in the name of people's representation, since they have the mandate to run the government. When AL supporters and ruling alliance activists are facing each other, we, the common people, are suffering the most. But the media has failed to give the true picture of the situation. It focused only on the opposition and the government. I won't mention anything about the economy as its altitude is very high. But when my children cannot go to school what kind of answer I have for them? Again, I have to take them to the school on Friday/Saturday (nowadays schools are kept open on Fridays following the hartal). I cannot take my ailing family members to the doctor, nor can I see my ailing relatives in hospitals.

But television reporting failed to cover these aspects of our lives.