The year 2001 saw many an event of enormous political gravity, the biggest one being the change in power that decided the country's destiny for the next five years, excepting eventualities, of course.

In fact, the year began with widespread speculations about the general election. And the early year politics revolved round the prospect of holding the election earlier than the schedule. Raging debates about whether an early election should take place or not continued punctuating the political front until the polls were finally held as per the schedule. Nevertheless, the last days of the Awami League government were marked by a series of explosions of powerful bombs that generated much of political heat and sometimes damaged the pro-election atmosphere.

The first bomb blast at a CPB rally at Paltan Maidan in January claimed four lives, the second one at the Ramna Batamul left 10 killed in April, the third one claimed 10 lives at the Baniachong church in June and the last one killed 22 at the Narayanganj AL office also in June. The mysterious explosions

prompted both government and opposition to blame each other for the heinous acts.

In February, the then AL government also had a testing time with Islamic zealots, who created law and order in Brahmanbaria and elsewhere while protesting a High Court verdict banning fatwa or religious edict and arrests of their leaders charged with inciting the murder of a police constable inside a city mosque.

The month long abduction of three foreigners at Rangamati hill district in February and a BDR-BSF battle leaving 19 dead at the Roumari frontier in April triggered a long-drawn political controversy and put the then government into an embarrassing situation.

The trouble-torn government seemed to have had a sigh of relief with the High Court reconfirming death sentence on 12 former army personnel in the Bangabandhu Murder Case in April when it was also widely appreciated for scrapping the notorious Vested Property Act.

At the fag end of its tenure, the AL government came under scathing criticism for enacting a special security law for the daughters of

Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana. The controversial law came into being less than a month before the AL handed over power to the nonparty caretaker government on July 15.

Although the AL's was the first ever government to complete a full term, it had to trudge a tough political road owing to mounting opposition pressure to quit and multi-dimensional events of great political fallout taking place.

The AL had even worse time with the caretaker government headed by Justice Latifur Rahman. The immediate-past ruling party was shocked, stunned and finally, angered by the steps the caretaker government took in a bid to neutralise the administration. The interim administration also dealt with some alleged irregularities by the AL government raising a constitutional debate on the mandate of such a government. The AL was also critical of many actions of the caretaker government that reportedly followed suggestions by the BNP-led alliance and largely ignored those made by the immediate-past ruling party so far as holding of the October 1 general election was concerned. This was for the first time that a non-party government was blamed for having political bias.

The October election witnessed a stormy campaign by the two main contenders AL and the BNP-led alliance.

The BNP-led alliance's stunning victory by bagging two-thirds of the 300 parliamentary seats prompted the AL to accuse the caretaker government of inflicting on it a defeat it did not deserve.

Unfortunately, the alliance's landslide victory followed persecution of the minority Hindus across the country in an unprecedented magnitude allegedly by the BNP activists. The BNP-led coalition government first dismissed reports of such repression as politically motivated but finally admitted 'some stray incidents' of violence against the Hindus and blamed those on the defeated party.

The post-election violence is still influencing national politics with the government and the opposition blaming each other for the action.

Sworn in on October 10, the coalition government of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia launched a fight against terrorism and corruption in line with its prime poll pledge. But, it is yet to make any breakthrough as acts of terrorism are still on the rise and taking new dimensions every now and then.

The new prime minister formed

a 60-member Council of Ministers- the largest-ever in the country's history of parliamentary democracy -- 10 days after her electoral victory, drawing flak from media, donors and civil society. Till date, several of her ministers and MPs hit headlines for their alleged involvement in acts of violence.

Performance of the newly elected parliament that had its maiden session during October-November also generated political debate. The main opposition AL earned bitter criticism for boycotting the very first session while the role of the treasury bench was also frustrating. The session heavily suffered from quorum crisis despite the fact that the ruling coalition alone commands a two-thirds majority in the House.

The new parliament, among other things, passed a bill repealing the security law for Hasina and her sister and elected senior BNP leader Prof. AQM Badrudduza Choudhury the new president of the republic.

Calling it a fight against corruption, the Khaleda government filed graft cases against former prime minister Hasina and six of her cabinet colleagues in early December, widening the government-opposition gap further.

Condemned for arresting noted journalist Shahriar Kabir who was making a documentary on the repressed Hindus, the coalition government earned appreciation for arresting BNP lawmaker Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu on charge of terrorism five days before the year elapsed into history.

Besides, a ban on polythene shopping bags from the New Year's Day is seen as another commendable action the 82-day-old government had taken.