Politics of hartal
Badrul Islam Uttara 1230 Dhaka
Your editorial on "Anti-hartal pact: National Interest demands it" published on 13 March 2005 and the write-up of Mr. Elahi, on the same topic published on 18 and 21 March 2005, identify the main causes of hartal as follows: The opposition is not allowed any democratic space in which to express dissent. The opposition resorts to hartal when it is out of power. And both the major political parties argue that hartal is a political right guaranteed by our constitution. If you analyse the subject properly none of these merits a call for hartal. All political parties are supposed to be efficient in managing the first two points and if they are unable to do so they should learn from their failure and be prepared for the next opportunity. That is the positive attitude and complaining on the basis of the first two points is a negative attitude and calling or rather imposing hartal is a discredit for the party concerned, specially because the party leaders do not take responsibility for the damage caused by their activists. Ailing citizens who may require medical attention on emergency basis should also be taken into consideration while calling hartal. With particular reference to the third point that "hartal is a political right guaranteed by our constitution", I wish to emphasise the fact that since 1991 democratic governance has been re-established and so this right cannot be exercised by the political parties unless the situation changes to an autocratic form of government. In fact under the democratic and parliamentary form of government, the constitutional right of all elected political parties is to participate equally, under all duress and strain, with the elected party that forms the government, for proper check and balance -a duty conferred upon them by citizens through their votes. Through your paper I also wish to draw the attention of all other editors that if together with The Daily Star a public consensus is conducted, the verdict of the citizens will be the same as the opinion expressed by me. Your editorial suggests alternatives to hartal and if the parties are wise that should be their only choice but that should be in addition to their presence in parliament. But again the most important factor is that the party leadership should take responsibility for the damage caused by their overzealous party members. It is my request that The Daily Star take the initiative for organising a seminar on this important topic.
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