IT was a sad sight of a woman leaning over her window with her child in her lap threatening to jump out of it to avoid being arrested by the police. One was projected from the world of the sublime to the absurd when one learnt that the lady in question had been served an arrest warrant in a case of theft instituted by no other a person than her husband himself.

The whole episode defies imagination because the man behind it happens to be a former president and his wife, by virtue of her marriage to him, a political player of sorts. The saga of the arrest that lasted a few hours was preceded by the expulsion of the wife the previous day from the apex body of the political party that the husband happens to lead.

Nobody can dispute a party chief's prerogative to deal as he or she pleases with a member of his or her party. But what occurred in this instance is an example of the sordid and decrepit level that our politics and politicians have sunk to. The whole affair illustrates not only the disingenuous proclivities of a party chief, it also demonstrates the pressure that political personalities can be subjected to for ulterior political motives. It is unprecedented, unheard of and wholly repugnant to societal norms and sensibilities.

Mr. Ershad is not a man of small political clout and by resorting to the political shenanigans, he may have demeaned himself in the public eye. One of the things that Ershad's detractors criticise him for is his inability to draw a line between his political and private lives. The recent episode perhaps proves them right.

There is a suspicion that behind the scene intrigue and machinations, perhaps under duress of the ruling party, may have brought the sensational event about by forcing Ershad's hands. On the other hand it may be Ershad's way of sending out political signals. Be that as it may, such a situation should not have been allowed to occur, whatever might have been Ershad's political compulsions.