This is perhaps the sharpest and most disappointing fall in the mercurial temper of parliamentary politics. No sooner were we able in these columns yesterday to greet the prospect of parliamentary politics returning on to an even keel with the opposition voluntarily filing into it and urge the ruling party to err on the gracious side than comes the reversal with opposition walk-out.

The ruling party seemingly asked for it, in view of the attitude reflected by and the outlandish 'and un-called for remarks contained in the speeches of Treasury Bench spokesmen Telecommunications Minister Mohd Nasim and LG RD Minister Zillur Rahman — in that order. All that BNP leader Prof Badruddoza Chowdhury demanded was the formation of a parliamentary committee comprising members from both sides to probe what they termed as specific instances of 'police excesses' committed on three BNP legislators during hartal hours on January 26. Aside from the allegations of beating there was a complaint made of 'arrogant behaviour’ on the part of OC, Ramna Thana. The issue involved was extremely delicate and sensitive so far as the opposition MPs were concerned because they felt 'harassed and tortured by the em- ‘ ployees of the state'. Only a low sense of self-esteem as elected public representatives could make one trivialise such a matter. There are certain proce-. dures to be followed in entertaining or rejecting a proposal for constituting parliamentary committee to address extra-ordinary circumstances, but the sheer dismissive attitude shown by the ruling party evidently predisposed such a course of action.

We find Telecommunications Minister Mohd Nasim's speech as being not only wide off the mark but also irresponsibly indulgent to 'police arbitrariness' and even naively confessional. Since the AL leaders were exposed to 'police torture' during the BNP rule, by the same token the BNP leaders could not hope to feel immune to the same now — seemed to be his bottomline. He has gone so far as to suggest that 'the state employees would not have daredhumiliate the politicians today if Begum Zia had punished the police officers concerned at that time.' Zillur Rahman was equally 'beating about the bush' and dismissive.

We feel the situation could have been much better handled. While the ruling party should avoid such a pitfall in the future, the opposition is urged to take guard against any overstretched walk-out.