Vitriol points to dark tunnel

AL president Sheikh Hasina has for quite some time been holding the prime minister responsible for all that is going wrong for her party or the country. And Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has made it known that her government would be tough on all elements given to politics of violence. She has warned the opposition of serious consequences should it indulge in what she called anarchy and terrorism. Suddenly, the language of the two leading political figures has acquired an element of belligerence. This has surprised the citizenry who became rather accustomed to a lull in confrontational politics they experienced in the recent months. It admittedly revives the memories of nightmare in the past when politics was strained and stretched beyond the permissible limits of adversarial relations between the two major parties. As a result, people suffered and so did the economy.

The political weather is turning murky with the hard-liners and hawks on either side of the divide raring to do their part in carrying forward the vitriol.

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There has been a spate of political killing in the recent past, and opposition pickets are coming under tough police action during hartals. The government blames the opposition for adopting agitational programmes, and the opposition says it is being repressed, which the news photos albeit bear testimony to. The latter needs to be given the political space to operate. It is expected of the ruling party in a democracy to go more than half-way to create conditions for effective coexistence with the opposition.

We would like to earnestly urge the two parties not to lead the nation to a point of no return by doggedly pursuing politics of confrontation and discord. Despite the alternating currents of aggressive opposition politics experienced by both parties, the elected governments were able to complete their full terms since 1991. So, the political parties should try to keep the system together taking to the positive aspects of their experiences.

We hope the leaders and their parties will exercise self-restraint in order to foster a tolerant political culture where the rules of the game will be followed as a matter of principle.