STAFF CORRESPONDENT

A political consensus through dialogues is now urgently needed to avoid possible violence in the days ahead, said eminent citizens at a dialogue yesterday.

Citing the fact that major political parties are at odds over the upcoming national polls, several of them opined that all should join the dialogue with an open mind and that the government should take steps to hold the talks.

The Hunger Project in collaboration with Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik (Shujon) organised the dialogue at the Cirdap Auditorium in the capital.

Political scientist Prof Rounaq Jahan said nobody disagrees that a dialogue between the two major parties should be held.

Political parties must reach a consensus so that the lives and livelihoods of the leaders and activists of the party defeated in polls are not affected afterwards, she said.

“We need to change the political culture. Considering that it might be neutral, the caretaker government system was introduced after a lot of hard work. But we saw how it was made partisan,” said Prof Rounaq, also a distinguished fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue.

She said the parties cannot agree to talks but they agree on lawmakers getting duty-free cars, special allocations for the development work in their constituencies, and other benefits.

Nobody in power wants to quit, she added.

Shujon Central Coordinator Dilip Kumar Sarkar said people expect a free, fair, participatory, and peaceful national election but the existing political situation is not conducive to participatory polls.

The Awami League and its allies want polls under a partisan government in line with the constitution while the BNP and other parties want polls under “The

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