Diabolic Shakespearean villains now abound

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Gopal Sengupta from Canada Shakespeare gave the world many a diabolic villain. We will never know who his role models were. Had he lived in this century he could have taken his pick from the many `merchants of venom' who spread hate and violence around the world. From brutal warlords to religious bigots, from suave mafia killers to drug cartel bosses and from gun-toting to sword brandishing zealots, he would have had a bewildering range to choose from. Centuries ago when he gave us Shylock he also introduced Portia to balance good and evil, right and wrong. But what do we have today? Hundreds of voices have risen in hate and anger, religious and political leaders of narrow vision and self-appointed leaders who cannot look beyond their egos. We have nobody to balance this `axis of evil' and in the midst of this cacophony the few voices of sanity from visionaries and intellectuals, as also the muffled scream of victims, are drowned. One can only wonder what the Bard would have made of this `world's stage' had he been plying his trade today. It is said that one of Britain's more successful prime ministers at least once a year used to assemble all his ministers in the Cabinet room, shut the door and tell them, "It does not matter what we say, as long as we all say the same thing." Perhaps the time has come for the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, to start a similar coaching course for the benefit of her rather large and loquacious council of ministers. For, most ministers in this country are evidently in love with their own voices and have a penchant for talking, often out of tune, on every subject under the sun and beyond it. To them it does not matter whether the issue under discussion has anything to do with their assigned responsibilities. They must have their say on it. No wonder Dhaka seems to have become a veritable Tower of Babel not because of a confusion of tongues, but because of cacophony of contradictory ministerial statements and sound bytes. Examples are plentiful and one does not have to go back more than a few weeks to underscore what the problem, with all its ramifications, is. One of the leading English dailies report has come to the readers' attention. Prime Minister has asked one of her cabinet colleagues to prove that neither he nor his brother was involved in the murder of town mayor, a two-time gold medallist as the best mayor in the country and also a local ruling party leader, was shot dead on November 1, 2011. The family and aides of the mayor suspect the minister and his younger brother of having masterminded the murder. The minister's brother has been implicated as the prime accused in the killing while another 13 accused in the case include an assistant personal secretary to the telecom's boss. None of the accused has been arrested as yet. On last Saturday, a day after the cabinet colleague returned home from Switzerland, the prime minister summoned him to her official residence and held a 15-minute meeting, which was also attended by three ruling party's lawmakers from that district. She said since her cabinet colleague's brother was an accused in the case and the minister was widely suspected of being involved in the murder, the minister now had to prove that neither he nor his brother had any link with the November 1 shooting. The prime minister also vowed that the killers of the mayor would be punished irrespective of whether they were in or outside the party. She asked all to act in a manner that would not influence the murder investigation at all. In response, the minister told the prime minister that he would follow all her directives and would accept whatever results the probe into the murder came up with. She herself chose one of the police personnel as acting police superintendent of that district and investigator in the case. One of the writers from the USA left a short but a strong argument over the above episode. Our prime minister should leave this murder case to the Ministry of Home Affairs with free hand. If the PMO meddle in and try to cover up minister, people's perception will be wind up in nightmare. Whether they need to interrogate the minister or not it is up to the investigation team. We expect this sensational savage killing will be disposed of during the tenure of the present government. My sincere submission to our prime minister is that a nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the souls of its people. A policy is a temporary creed liable to change, but while it holds good it has got to be pursued with apostolic zeal. A principle is the expression of perfection, and as imperfect beings like us cannot practise perfection, we devise every moment limits of its compromise in practice. Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties, the telecom boss, now the choice is up to you! The writer can be reached at email_ gopalsengupta@aol.com