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Another casualty of vicious politics

Inam Ahmed
The current mindless political fray has its many victims -human lives for one, the economy for another. Besides, we have recently seen another victim - political dignity.
Take the latest case first.
Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh suddenly made a whirlwind visit to Dhaka.
Her trip was planned quite hastily, on November 28. The Indians called it a 'familiarisation' visit which on the surface sounded quite like a normal affair.
But then from the highest level meetings and from the details so far obtained, it was far from a 'familiarisation' trip. It appears that one of her purposes was to negotiate between the feuding political parties. HM Ershad actually revealed the most startling proposition that Sujatha Singh reportedly made. According to him, Singh made the point that he should take part in the election; otherwise the county would see a rise of the Jamaat.
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Later she made another comment that India wanted the participation of 'majority' parties in the election.
First, we cringe at the loss of dignity of our political leaders who have pushed the countiy to such a desperate situation to realize their own agenda that they do not wince before sitting with a foreign bureaucrat and listen to what her political advice is rather than sitting with their own political opponents, even with someone who was a former prime minister.
They have lost so much self-respect and sense of dignity that they meekly accept what is clearly a case of meddling in our internal politics.
Imagine Indian political and media reactions to a visiting foreign secretary meeting Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and others and offering suggestions about the future of Indian politics.
How are we to read the Indian foreign secretary's view that India is for 'maximum' parties' participation in the election. Is a head count of parties, most of which have hardly any
following, the right way to ensure a representative election? Doesn't the term 'maximum parties' indirectly leave the option open that some parties may be kept out?
Such overtures may have a long-term impact on relations between the two countries.
In the second instance, we see another bureaucrat, US Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Desai Biswal, coming here on a similar political mission.
She had also come for a 'familiarisation' trip and at that time also our politicians were too eager to listen to what formula she had to offer. In fact both sides, especially die opposition, were almost counting on her to force a breakthrough.
We find diplomats, especially those from the LIS, shuttling between the two parties and other leaders and making several compromise offers.
We have never seen such intimate involvement of foreign countries in our domestic politics. It now suddenly proves that our political leadership is totally incapable of taking politics forward. Only democracy suffers when leaders behave in this manner.