Galling aspects of transport bashing culture
Friday, 29 October 2010
ONE of the very galling aspects of the social and political scenes in Bangladesh is the automobile bashing culture. Mobs and youngsters on different pretexts are frequently seen swooping down on private transports and bashing them savagely to give vent to their so-called grievances.
The outcome is destruction of private property for no good reasons. Such action is not upheld by law. This practice and mentality is not only against the law of the land but also runs contrary to universally practised laws and customs in this regard.
Bashing of private transports and also public ones and that too on a large scale has been a part of the political culture of this country for long. Protestors claiming allegiance to different political parties are prone to attacking automobiles running on roads without the victims doing anything at all to deserve such assaults on them.
The attackers could be also showing their anger for an accident that may have been committed by a single vehicle causing a casualty. But instead of catching and submitting the offender for facing the due process of the law, the witnesses to the incident may burst forth in a riotous mood. They start bashing private and public transports right and left in an orgy of violence leaving a large number of vehicles damaged for no wrong done by their owners or drivers. Or the marchers of a political rally may start attacking such transports in a similar fashion just to draw attention to their demands.
In fact attacking transports on flimsiest grounds or no grounds have become like an integral part of life in Bangladesh that begs a long overdue very stern governmental and societal response to the same.
Nighat Sultana
Mohammadpur,
Dhaka
The outcome is destruction of private property for no good reasons. Such action is not upheld by law. This practice and mentality is not only against the law of the land but also runs contrary to universally practised laws and customs in this regard.
Bashing of private transports and also public ones and that too on a large scale has been a part of the political culture of this country for long. Protestors claiming allegiance to different political parties are prone to attacking automobiles running on roads without the victims doing anything at all to deserve such assaults on them.
The attackers could be also showing their anger for an accident that may have been committed by a single vehicle causing a casualty. But instead of catching and submitting the offender for facing the due process of the law, the witnesses to the incident may burst forth in a riotous mood. They start bashing private and public transports right and left in an orgy of violence leaving a large number of vehicles damaged for no wrong done by their owners or drivers. Or the marchers of a political rally may start attacking such transports in a similar fashion just to draw attention to their demands.
In fact attacking transports on flimsiest grounds or no grounds have become like an integral part of life in Bangladesh that begs a long overdue very stern governmental and societal response to the same.
Nighat Sultana
Mohammadpur,
Dhaka