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We are all Geeta Sen

Brig Gen Shah edu l An am Khan ndc, psc (Reid)
IN this time of political uncertainty and violence that attend such unrest one cannot but feel a very deep sense of psychological proximity with Geeta Sen and her feelings, because they are our feelings too. And no one crediting himself or herself to be a human being will fail to relate very closely to her sufferings, and of so many others like her, that are undergoing the same agony. Their sufferings are our
sufferings too.
What is happening in the name of democracy, constitution and the people harm our credentials as a phlegmatic people. In fact, the targeting of unsuspecting civilians has removed all kinds of pretense and laid
bare the motive behind the violence that is being perpetrated. Whoever is doing this or having these done by 'outsourcing' violence is doing it to precipitate a situation that is as unpredictable as the consequence of it, and which may not be within our capacity to tackle by ourselves if we continue to remain as fractured as we are today.
Gandhi had once said: "What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?" And that is what Geeta Sarkar, the unfortunate lady who was one of the many victims of the senseless orgy of violence that is being wreaked in the country, conveyed to the PM and the leader of the opposition when Sheikh Hasina went to visit the victims of the recent arson attacks in the capital.
And she conveyed more than what Gandhi's famous comments did nearly 80 years ago. Geeta Sarkar has spoken for the people of Bangladesh, and her words came from a person in deep agony of not only the cor-poral wound she has sustained, but also the psychological trauma inflicted not so much by the petrol bomb that burned her and 18 other of her fellow bus passengers including her daughter, but by the base character that politics has assumed.
I feel one with her, and I have neither any qualms nor hesitation in acknowledging my inability to be as forthright and blunt as she. It is perhaps because I remain happily ensconced in the four walls of my home not worried about how the next meal is going to come or how to get my daughter to school in time that she does not miss her exams. But because of the situation created by politics and politicians, thousands of Geetas have to risk their lives to go about their daily chores.
And, facetious that it may sound, I seem to be in very good company of our civil society and H R groups members who seem to have lost their voice when they should have been more vociferous and come together to register their protest at the senseless violence and the
cause of the violence, cutting across party lines. What has been heard as remonstration has at best been muted. Whatever may be the rationale for the respective positions that the two parties have taken on the issue of the CTG, nothing can justify the violence that we are witnessing.
What the government fails to realise is that it cannot use the opposition's flawed strategy to make political capital, because that is what appears to be the case. The inability of the law enforcing agencies to apprehend the actual perpetrators in spite of their heavy presence on the streets, particularly in the capital, has given rise to ludicrous speculations about the government's role in the violence.
Our leaders must under-
stand too that they are not our masters, we are theirs, and as Geeta said, we put them there. And by putting us through endless agony and uncertainty they have failed in their bounden duty and the trust we put on them to ensure our safety. None of the parties can claim the high moral ground because their politics is devoid of ethics. And here the cautionary' tone of the UN commissioner for Human Rights that those who have caused the loss of lives may face prosecution under the provisions of ICC Act for perpetrating political or election related violence must be recognised.
It is a pity that politics has become the cause of people's insecurity. If there is a sick government it is because there is sick politics. And it requires the active involvement of the suffering silent majority to stop the violence and the destructive path that politics is taking the country towards. It is the people only who can cure sick politics.