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A wrong move, at a wrong time

SYED FATTAHUL ALIM
SCARCELY 24 hours had passed after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in her address to the nation called upon the opposition to join parliament for a dialogue and also invited it to participate in her proposed allparty election-time administra-tion, when the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) banned all kinds of political meetings, rallies, sit-ins, human chains, etc for an indefinite period.
The government is yet to make it clear what prompted it to go for such a draconian measure at such a time when the political arena should be abuzz with meetings, rallies and parleys among various political parties and groups in anticipation of the upcoming election. Snatching people's constitutionally granted right to meet, assemble and hold rallies, unless there is a serious emergency situation like war or socio-political crisis of dangerous proportions, is highly undemocratic. We are not aware of any such threat to the country or society, for had there been any the PM would have spelt that out in her Friday's address to the nation and warned the people of the danger accordingly. But there was no such hint in her speech.
She called upon the opposition not to go for belligerent and violent movement in support of any of their demands. But such rhetoric-laden criticism that she levels against the opposition from time to time is also nothing new in her speeches. Then why this sudden ban on political activities? Is it then, as many political watchers are saying, to foil the Dhaka rally that the BNP has called for October 25? If a political party, which is a major player in the upcoming national poll, is thus denied the right to assemble or hold rally, how will they be convinced of the PM's sincerity about her offer of talks or invitation to join her proposed election-time government?
In fact, the opposition BNP has already reacted very negatively and declared that it would defy the ban and stage protest demonstrations in the districts against it.
So, the administration's decision to ban political meetings has been an ill-timed one. It has been impulsive, which reflects negatively on the government's selfconfidence at this point of time.
The ruling AL must face facts. In a democratic set-up, it looks ridiculous if a government in its last days tries to behave like when it was in its early or mid- course in power. In fact, the government is shutting itself off from the outside world exactly at a time when it should rather open up further.
All this does not send the right signal. But wrong signals are coming in profusion from every corner of the government, day in and day out. Ministers, advisers and different leaders of the government have been speaking to the media on every conceivable occasion, but are in conflict with one another. Take for example, some such remarks that came immediately after the PM's overture to the opposition in her nationwide address.
One of the ruling AL’s central leaders, Kazi Zafarullah, and an adviser to the prime minister, H.T. Imam, made it clear from their remarks that AL would go for forming the all-party interim government and hold election even if the BNP did not respond positively to the PM's proposal. Oddly though, they could not wait to hear the opposition's response to PM's formula. This couldn't-care-less attitude shown by these government leaders towards the opposition just after PM's address gives the lie to her call for dialogue and the invitation to the opposition to join her all-party poll-time government. And if one takes their comments at face value, what remains of the proposed 'all-party interim government' where the major opposition is left out of the arrangement?
All these remarks are only adding to the confusion in the public mind about the government's real intentions about the election. But this kind of unpredictability in the behaviour of governments in their final months falls into a pattern since the post-autocracy experiment in our democracy began some 23 years ago.
The governments that came by turns became more aggressive, intolerant, undemocratic as their last days in office draw closer. The incumbent AL government does also looks like one getting inexorably drawn into a similar kind of maelstrom.
To avoid it, the government, if it is really sincere about the PM's assurance of holding a free, fair and credible general election with the participation of all political parties, must stop behaving like a bully and lift the ban on political activities in the capital. For the answer to the challenge, if any, to democracy, perceived or real, is not authoritarianism, but more democracy.
The writer is Editor, Science & Life. E-mail: sfalim.ds@gmail.com