The culture of extreme intolerance

The culture of extreme intolerance, in any issue, has been increasing considerably in the country. Today, our moral has come down to such a stage that we have forgotten to even respect others and their rights. We have also forgotten that our activities can be harmful for others. What we enjoy, may not be enjoyed by others. A matter of celebration for one can be a matter of sorrow for others. Emotionally, we do whatever we like but we are not concerned about the feelings of others. Now, people are really unhappy with the state of affairs that they face everyday. There is no need to look at too many things to understand the severity of extreme intolerance. Following an accident, near an educational institution or on the highway, the people nearby get excited and vandalise passing vehicles and blocking the road. Such unruly behaviour is spreading like cancer cells. Last Sunday, some angry garment workers vandalised over 20 vehicles and set fire to buses and blocked the Dhaka-Gazipur highway for three and half hours after a fellow worker was killed by a bus. But the matter is that accidents do not happen only due to the fault of the driver of the vehicle, on many occasions, the victim's careless crossing is also responsible. Whatever happens, people go out on to the streets to vandalise public property, especially cars and buses, to register their protest. Of late, people have started to apply the same method whenever share index declines abnormally. Why the pedestrians, commuters, or vehicle operators on the road have to pay dearly for the share market fiasco? Again, many bus owners in the city have changed their routes just to avoid hassles created by some unruly students. Some students refuse to pay fare and some want to pay less than what they ought to pay. At times, this leads to widespread vandalism. On the eve of the last hartal, ten buses were torched by the mob. Again, last month protesters torched two buses at Badda in the capital after a man had been shot dead by a mugger. Apparently, this torching did not bring any benefit to us rather the road from Rampura to Badda link road was blocked by the police and people had to walk all the way to reach home after finishing the day's business. Thus one's whim creates other's trouble. Last but not the least, it has become a norm these days that the factory owners do not care to listen to the workers' demands until and unless they take to the streets, clash with law enforcers, and go on a spree of violence and vandalism. The workers assume that their demand will not be fulfilled unless they engage in violence and vandalism. Most of the time, the authority doesn't make any instant move to counteract them and calm the situation. It plays the role of mute onlookers from a safe distance while the damage is inflicted. It is noteworthy that, if the police would take the strategy of rapid operation at the very beginning of a chaos, they would be able to save life and property and restore order within a short period of time. There is no doubt about the fact that everything is uncertain in this world, but people today are more insecure than before. One doesn't know the suffering, especially for others' deeds, that he has to face on his way to office or home. Road blocking as well as car bashing due to extreme intolerance has become a normal scenario which is not a good sign rather it's a gloomy one. We repeatedly complain that our government is unable to provide us the facilities that we badly need where as, in a sharp contrast to that voice, we vandalise the little facility whatever we have. This culture in a developing country like Bangladesh is unexpected when the country is overloaded with so many problems like over population, poverty, price hike etc. It is high time we avoided this rowdy behaviour. Let's have patience and act wisely to avoid extreme intolerance that leads to vandalism. The writer can be reached at e-mail: shafiqul0032@yahoo.com