What happened in Maheskhali. Cox’s Bazar, a couple of days back is outrageous beyond measure. It was more ominous than gangsterism we have come to dread so much. It was creepy commu-nalism trying it out through the backdoor of public gullibility. In the manner of happening though it was a galling broad daylight affair. And. that is where the menace looks even worse.

The so-called Babri Masjid Smriti Sangsad in Maheskhali, not content with living in a fading near-hoary memory, decided that it needed an issue to whip up public sentiments to clamber on to their consciousness. They put out a rallying cry against a Jatra show in a village fair by means of a protest hartal. Result: it incited a mob duly egged on by hirelings to set afire the jatra pandal and five houses at the village Adina with injures inflicted on 16 persons apart from the huge property loss and the lingering tensions.

Jatra is a bardic form of dramatic art handed down through the generations and a very popular and common cultural and recreational attraction in the countryside. It is a necessary fixture in the rural fairs which are usually organised around this time of the year. And, if there be any notoriety associated with gambling etc then it should have been fittingly a matter for the local administration to handle, not certainly something that should have brought back the Babri Masjid memory. Or led to a free-for-all loot of valuables in the rural households. How coarse and philistine was all that!

We cannot give indulgence to such a rabid exploitation of people s religious sentiments. But the local law enforcers did just that through a delayed and inconclusive police action. The government should not only be firm against the reactionary forces but also be seen to be firm.