THE Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islam postponed their planned rally at the Paltan Maidan yesterday, much to the relief of the worried citizens tensed up over a potentially confrontational situation — thanks to Jubo League scheduling a rally at the same place and time. It has transpired that the Jamaat had applied for and obtained the necessary permission to organise the meeting at the Maidan well before Jubo League announced its rally programme on May 29. So, the Jubo League's counter-move was an act aimed clearly at disrupting Jamaat's rally.

Let's make it abundandy clear that we do not support the Jamaat's anachronistic politics and their hidden agenda of pushing the country back to the days of theocracy. In fact, we vehemently oppose Jamaat's politics. We have condemned it in the past and continue to do so, for their role in 1971. They collaborated with Pakistan army while it carried out a genocide. We have also condemned Jamaat's involvement with the killing of our intellectuals just prior to our victory in 1971.

What we find reprehensible is that even today, after 39 years of our independence, Jamaat has not apologised to the nation for its role in 1971.

However, though we find Jamaat's politics to be totally retrogressive, and its use of religion in politics to hoodwink the people repugnant, nevertheless, one cannot overlook the point that the Jamaat is a legal political party and it has the right to organise a meeting so long as it is peaceful and done with due permission. It is up to the people to decide how to respond to the Jamaat's politics.

The trick played by ruling party activists is simple: create a tense situation and force the law enforcers to take a tough position like clamping section 144 to head off a rally of the opposition. Incidents involving Jamaat rallies or processions since April 3 right up to May 31, including the Paltan one in Dhaka, fall into a pattern of clamping section 144 by the government as political activists opposed to them went about foiling their rallies. These were reported from Pabna, Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj, Dinajpur, Barisal, Sylhet and Chittagong.

Those opposed to Jamaat politics would do themselves as well as the country a world of good by tackling Jamaat politically which means unmasking Jamaat' s legacy and agenda.

We firmly believe that any deviation from democratic norms and rules will be counter-productive in the fight against obscurantism. The forces calling themselves democratic and pro-people can ill-afford to be oblivious of this plain truth.