Stray issues of far reaching consequences

Shamsher Chowdhury A number of recent incidents, as reported in the national dailies, are rather disturbing and do not augur well for the country in the coming days or years. Ever since the present government came to power, the conduct of the student using of ruling party has been extremely unruly. It is due to this student body that the academic environment of our public universities in particular has received the worst blow in recent years. It has also substantially damaged the image of the ruling alliance. This very student body also continues to be involved in all kinds of tender manipulation through terror tactics. Some time back, a few of its members were involved in the gang raping of a girl and making a video of the bizarre act! One could write volumes on the misdeeds of the student body, but what beats them all is a photograph published in a leading Bangla daily of the country. This photograph vividly depicts a scenario of two factions engaged in a pitched battle on the sacred premises of the mausoleum of the Father of the Nation at Tongipara in Gopalganj. What a disgrace and shame for the entire nation. It is high time to rein in the unruly behaviour and criminal acts of the ruling party student wing before it gets totally out of control. We often hear of resource constraints and our economy being in dire straits, yet we tend to ignore millions of taka worth of utility bills remaining unpaid for years by different government agencies. On the one hand, we are continually engaged in devising ways and means to raise additional revenues internally, particularly, from the public at large while the administration conveniently overlooks huge sums of charges and bills remaining unpaid by the government agencies. Apparently as much as Tk 500 million in unpaid bills are due against a number of ministries, worth mentioning amongst these are the ministries of home, defense and law and parliamentary affairs. In this backdrop, what is most disquieting and frustrating, is the fact that telephone connections at private residences are often snapped for all kinds of unspecified reasons including unpaid bills of negligible sums of a thousand taka or even less. What is also shocking is the fact that at times it takes days or even weeks to restore telephone connections even when the bill payments are up to date. The private land-line telephone connection of this scribe has been out of operation for nearly two months now. The only tone that comes on the receiver is, "sorry, this line is cancelled". I have since been receiving bills and have paid that too. While we talk about establishing a 'Digital Bangladesh', we should also take note of such maladies. This is also one of the major causes why more and more people are turning to mobile phones despite the fact it has essentially given rise to a number of social evils including facilitating activities of criminals. There is a saying, "Justice delayed, justice denied". It is simply absurd that the case of the murder of a Detective Branch (DB) source, Jalal, has been hanging for over eight years since a single witness could not be produced in the court. Apparently, the incident took place some 12 years ago. We also have this news report that no visible progress has been made yet on the investigation into the sensational fire incident that killed the president of the Ganatantri Party, Nurul Islam and his son. There are innumerable such cases which are hanging for years. This scribe has pointed out on earlier occasions too that the most important institution of the state is the judiciary and how its legal system operates. Strange enough, we have seen cases more complicated than the two cited above have been resolved and verdicts pronounced within the shortest possible time. The question thus arises as to why investigations into these cases are taking so long? Is it because there is a lack of will on the part of the concerned investigation officers or some undisclosed reasons best known to the ruling establishment? A crime is a crime, no matter its magnitude. We are grateful to the present government for its sincerest efforts in trying the war criminals of our War of Liberation. Yet we should all remember that, no matter what, nothing disserves the cause of justice than selective justice. First, it was Ziaur Rahman, who the ruling establishment through carefully choreographed propaganda exercises branded him as one who was not a 'Muktijodha'. Ziaur Rahman may be guilty on various other counts but that he certainly was a Muktijodha; there should be no doubt about it. He was one of our valiant freedom fighters. Thus, to many of us it came as a shock particularly to those who were witnesses to our War of Liberation from the start to the finish. We find it rather strange that it took the ruling party decades to discover "this hidden secret"? And now Bangabir Kader Siddiqui, one of our most valiant freedom fighters, has also been dubbed by one of the central leaders of Awami League as a 'Razakar'. How shameful and unfortunate. In this country, individuals and even state-run institutions, under the blessings of the ruling elites, can get away with anything under the sun. This is continually sending the wrong signals to the people at large. We sincerely pray that sanity prevails with our rulers and that they become a little more alive to the needs and sentiments of the people at large. The writer can be reached at email: chowdhuryshamsher@yahoo.com