Yesterday passed the Noor Hossain Day with a number of meetings commemorating his sacrifice. It is possible that some of the speechlflcatlons were sincere and at least some speakers meant some of what they said. But this yearly exercise on November 10 does not help clear some very crucial questions, t if we were serious about Noor Hossain's supreme sacrifice and its catalysing a hesitant anti-autocratic movement into a regular avalanche — have we at all tried to enquire into how he was killed and who killed him. This hasn't been done by the biggest beneficiary of Noor Hossain's sacrifice — the BNP government.

Noor Hossain Day. of course, provides us with an occasion to stop and ponder over our performance in quest of that elusive chimera — democracy. The only established act of democracy from the moment Noor fell to this day was what is known as the Shahabuddin election. Although the present government had nothing to do with that act save becoming a beneficiary to it, its constant posture over all of these years was that democracy that was at play at its genesis made it democratic without, perhaps, its needing to adhere to and Sractice and develop democratic principles.

o black law was repealed and control and abuse continues of the electronic media. Police excess, to which Noor Hossain fell, is also being repeated.

In a thousand ways we are failing Noor Hossain and the nation's overall performance is falling far too short of vindicating his martyrdom. November 10 comes as a reminder of this all.