Who is to blame for Faruque's death?
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
Ferdous Rahman
Faruque Hossain finally succumbed to his injuries on 1st July after spending five agonizing days in the hospital. He and his friend received severe burn injuries as the criminals torched his car on the night before the hartal day. Hartal supporters poured petrol in to the car set it ablaze at Maghbazar. Besides, few other cars and buses were also torched in different areas of the capital Dhaka causing burn injuries to many passengers. On hartal day, one Abul Kashem, a Superintendent Engineer of PWD was hit in his head with brick by the picketers while he was going to office.
Hartal can no more be termed democratic as its violent nature cause physical damage and mental agony of general people. BNP called for a dawn to dusk hartal on June 27 to press for its 11-point demands including solution to the utility crisis, tender manipulation, persecution of opposition leaders and workers etc.
Hartal - a Gujrati word - the dictionary meaning is strike action. At the initial stage, it used to be initiated by the business people in the form of closure of shops, warehouses etc as a strategy to impose pressure and protest in order to achieve or fulfill their demands. Historically, political hartals were a part of non-cooperation movement by the people against the colonial rulers with the objective of realizing the goals of self government, autonomy or independence. Since the interest of colonial rulers and the people of the colonies were diametrically opposite, hartals were inevitably used as a major instrument to demonstrate the united action of the people in protesting against the arbitrary powers.
Hartal was institutionalized by Mahatma Gandhi in the politics of India in 1920s and 1930s. It was first observed in the subcontinent as a protest to Jallianwala Bagh massacre. But after the independence of the country and the emergence of Bangladesh the context has changed and the protection and promotion of national interest have become the supreme concern for each and every citizen.
Though hartals are often called in the name of people, but it, in fact, makes the ordinary peoples' movement restricted, property endangered and progress curbed. It actually curbs the rights of people who are not willing to participate in it.
Earlier, hartal used to be organized by volunteers without resorting to violence. But now it is fear of violence, resorted often by paid goons of the political parties, keeps people indoor. However, if hartal is justified as a democratic right, how can violence be justified?
The call of hartal called by the opposition political parties aims at paralyzing not only the functioning of the administrative machinery of the government, but also the disrupting the commercial activities of private sector as well. The economy incurs huge losses due to hartal and it by all means is extremely detrimental to the normal economic activities of the country as large industries, factories, sea ports, railway, banks, wholesale markets, educational institutes, offices and transports are forcibly shuttered down by the hartal supporters.
Other economic activities like export, import, tourism, production and normal functioning of industries are seriously disrupted. The accumulated financial losses in terms of lost production caused by hartals are huge. In addition to financial losses, the people are subjected to other difficulties.
The innocent people have witnessed so many such anarchic situations created in the name of exercising political rights. The so-called political action forces one to stay home on a working day. The people, especially the daily wage-earners and people seeking medical help suffer most because of the forced deadlock.
In a democratic system of government, hartal must be observed differently so that it does not hurt the economy and desabilise the society. Here, the objective of such action should not be in any means to oust any democratically elected government.
Hartal has lost much of its acceptability as a political weapon. It cannot give any solution to various civic problems faced by the people. Rather, it destroys the image of the country causing huge losses to the economy. Those problems can be solved in parliament. Respecting the peoples' aspiration of a qualitative change in politics, all must avoid calling hartal.
Peoples' welfare cannot be ensured by torching vehicles, vandalism or even hartal. Only the vested quarters are interested in destabilizing the country.
If necessary, hartal must be banned with consensus by bringing a bill in parliament. The highest court of India in a judgment fined BJP and its close ally Shiv Sena Rs. 2.0 million each in compensation for the loss caused to the public by a hartal called jointly by them in Mumbai in 2003.
The present era of global competition, we must come out of the current hartal culture and collectively evolve a peaceful political action to realise demands and protect people’s rights. Parliament is the right place where political parties should exercise their rights and settle issues.
The writer is coordinator, Media for Development. He can be reached E-mail: ferdous.rahmaan@gmail.com
Faruque Hossain finally succumbed to his injuries on 1st July after spending five agonizing days in the hospital. He and his friend received severe burn injuries as the criminals torched his car on the night before the hartal day. Hartal supporters poured petrol in to the car set it ablaze at Maghbazar. Besides, few other cars and buses were also torched in different areas of the capital Dhaka causing burn injuries to many passengers. On hartal day, one Abul Kashem, a Superintendent Engineer of PWD was hit in his head with brick by the picketers while he was going to office.
Hartal can no more be termed democratic as its violent nature cause physical damage and mental agony of general people. BNP called for a dawn to dusk hartal on June 27 to press for its 11-point demands including solution to the utility crisis, tender manipulation, persecution of opposition leaders and workers etc.
Hartal - a Gujrati word - the dictionary meaning is strike action. At the initial stage, it used to be initiated by the business people in the form of closure of shops, warehouses etc as a strategy to impose pressure and protest in order to achieve or fulfill their demands. Historically, political hartals were a part of non-cooperation movement by the people against the colonial rulers with the objective of realizing the goals of self government, autonomy or independence. Since the interest of colonial rulers and the people of the colonies were diametrically opposite, hartals were inevitably used as a major instrument to demonstrate the united action of the people in protesting against the arbitrary powers.
Hartal was institutionalized by Mahatma Gandhi in the politics of India in 1920s and 1930s. It was first observed in the subcontinent as a protest to Jallianwala Bagh massacre. But after the independence of the country and the emergence of Bangladesh the context has changed and the protection and promotion of national interest have become the supreme concern for each and every citizen.
Though hartals are often called in the name of people, but it, in fact, makes the ordinary peoples' movement restricted, property endangered and progress curbed. It actually curbs the rights of people who are not willing to participate in it.
Earlier, hartal used to be organized by volunteers without resorting to violence. But now it is fear of violence, resorted often by paid goons of the political parties, keeps people indoor. However, if hartal is justified as a democratic right, how can violence be justified?
The call of hartal called by the opposition political parties aims at paralyzing not only the functioning of the administrative machinery of the government, but also the disrupting the commercial activities of private sector as well. The economy incurs huge losses due to hartal and it by all means is extremely detrimental to the normal economic activities of the country as large industries, factories, sea ports, railway, banks, wholesale markets, educational institutes, offices and transports are forcibly shuttered down by the hartal supporters.
Other economic activities like export, import, tourism, production and normal functioning of industries are seriously disrupted. The accumulated financial losses in terms of lost production caused by hartals are huge. In addition to financial losses, the people are subjected to other difficulties.
The innocent people have witnessed so many such anarchic situations created in the name of exercising political rights. The so-called political action forces one to stay home on a working day. The people, especially the daily wage-earners and people seeking medical help suffer most because of the forced deadlock.
In a democratic system of government, hartal must be observed differently so that it does not hurt the economy and desabilise the society. Here, the objective of such action should not be in any means to oust any democratically elected government.
Hartal has lost much of its acceptability as a political weapon. It cannot give any solution to various civic problems faced by the people. Rather, it destroys the image of the country causing huge losses to the economy. Those problems can be solved in parliament. Respecting the peoples' aspiration of a qualitative change in politics, all must avoid calling hartal.
Peoples' welfare cannot be ensured by torching vehicles, vandalism or even hartal. Only the vested quarters are interested in destabilizing the country.
If necessary, hartal must be banned with consensus by bringing a bill in parliament. The highest court of India in a judgment fined BJP and its close ally Shiv Sena Rs. 2.0 million each in compensation for the loss caused to the public by a hartal called jointly by them in Mumbai in 2003.
The present era of global competition, we must come out of the current hartal culture and collectively evolve a peaceful political action to realise demands and protect people’s rights. Parliament is the right place where political parties should exercise their rights and settle issues.
The writer is coordinator, Media for Development. He can be reached E-mail: ferdous.rahmaan@gmail.com