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Sunset rule for Khaleda's Munshiganj rally

Farid Hossain
BANGLADESH Nationalist Party did not participate in the January 5 general election. It has suffered a setback - not in the form of any election defeat but by losing its status as the main opposition in parliament. Since then, BNP has been on the run. Finding the once-governing party in organisational disarray, the government has decided to go after it and harass it as much as possible.
The government tactic is evident from the obstacles the law enforcement agencies have created for BNP in holding public rallies in venues of its choice in the capital city and around it. On May 24, Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum, a lawyers' front of BNP, was not allowed to hold a rally on the premises of the Supreme Court to protest what it called a spate of abductions, forced
Sunset rule for Khaleda's Munshiganj rally
disappearances and killings. The law enforcers put all the three gates of the building under lock and key and shooed away dozens of lawyers who tried to enter the premises. Some of them were reportedly detained. Similar police obstructions were also created when the opposition group wanted to hold a meeting at the Institute of Engineers.
The lawyers eventually went to the National Press Club, usually off-limit for police, where BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia spoke in a crowded auditorium, which was broadcast live by most of the private television channels. So, if the government's intention was to prevent people from listening to the ex-premier it obviously did not work.
The police went some steps further when BNP sought permission for a public rally in Munshiganj town on May 28. They placed at least 20 pre-conditions for the meeting that
was addressed by Khaleda, her first in the town in 14 years. Prominent among the conditions were that the rally had to be ended by sunset, no provocative speech would be made and sticks could not be brought in by the opposition activists while attending the meeting. The last one sounds sensible enough. Why should someone be allowed to carry sticks to a public rally? How about the two other conditions? Police warned the opposition leaders not to make any provocative speech. Interestingly, the condition itself sounds very much provocative. So is the sunset rule, which reminds us of a now-abolished order to the residents of Dhaka University's women dormitories to return to their rooms by sunset.
The other day we heard a BNP central leader accusing the government of imposing a sort of
state of emergency in the country. The leader, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, might have overstated the situation. But was he totally wrong? Despite the controversies surrounding January's election it was expected to produce a stable government that would focus its attention and energy on building a rapport with the political opponents. It is important for the nation forget the nightmarish days that preceded the 10th Parliamentary polls and march ahead with a fresh vow to consolidate democracy.
Instead, the government is going the other way. In going after the opposition the government is rather helping it regroup and steel its resolve to fight for its survival. Meanwhile, the ordinary people, upset by what has happened in Narayanganj and Phulgazi upazila in Feni district, are likely to side with the opposition, at least in the form of sympathy. There are plenty of such signals around for