Can a minister misrepresent facts to the JS?

How he has escaped censure and dismissal for the dismal state of law enforcement in the country under his stewardship remains one of the great mysteries of Bangladeshi politics. But now he has taken to compounding his own incompetence and inadequacy by uttering bare-faced falsehoods in the JS that bring disrepute to the house, insult the intelligence of the people, and are an embarrassment to the government.

How Khaleda Zia can conclude that he is doing a defensible job either as home minister or as representative of the BNP government is beyond me.

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Let us look at the condition of law and order during Altaf's tenure as home minister. The record is a litany of failure that would long ago have caused any sentient politician to resign in shame and humiliation.

Put simply, the law and order situation in Bangladesh would be a joke if the consequences were not so grim. As it is, the crime and lawlessness that dominate the country are no laughing matter. It is a matter of public record that crime is out of control. In its two and a half year tenure, the BNP government has been either unable or unwilling to stem this flow of crime.

The home minister's poor record is there for everyone to see. It does not take great powers of perception to note the precariousness of the country's law and order situation. The difficulty is knowing where to start cataloging the many failures and having enough time and space to list them all.

We live in a country where even prominent and influential businessmen can seemingly be abducted with impunity. Their best bet is simply to pay the ransom asked for their freedom, as the authorities appear utterly unable to secure their release in any other way.

The abduction of businessman Jamaluddin in Chittagong is only one of a number of cases that remain unsolved to this day.

We live in a country where paying extortionists is a way of life for small businessmen and traders and where gangsters control entire neighbourhoods. Murder, armed robbery, and rape occur on a daily basis.

Then there has been the systematic and organised violence against one or the other of the country's minority populations that has reared its ugly head these last few years. Once again, the home ministry has been unable to protect these vulnerable groups and utterly unable to bring to book the perpetrators of these kinds of assaults.

The evidence of the minister's ineffectiveness is endless.

And these are just the main stories. I have not even touched upon the plentitude of daily misery inflicted on the population in the absence of law and order. People live in fear. Ask anyone on the street what their pre-eminent concern is and they will tell you it is the deterioration in the law and order situation.

On top of the daily sufficiency of crime that we have grown accustomed to, has been Altaf's intemperate response to street demonstrations that have occurred on his watch. Rallies, processions and hartals have routinely been broken up with a great deal of brutality and those involved have been clubbed and beaten mercilessly.

Take the series of hartals called by the opposition AL this month. Now, regardless of what one thinks of hartals in principle and this paper's policy has been to oppose hartals under all circumstances -- most people would agree that brutal and indiscriminate lathi charges against demonstrators, including women, are probably not the best way to counter them. But that was the solution that our home minister, in his infinite wisdom, came up with.

As if that was not bad enough, the minister then went to the JS and denied that any such thing had taken place. Let us look at his statement:

"The 4-party government of Khaleda Zia doesn't believe in the politics of having politicians beaten by police. The present government respects honour and dignity of the politicians . . . Awami League leaders Saber Hossain Chowdhury and Ahsanullah Master MP were not injured by police personnel. Rather, they hurt themselves by falling on the road in a melee during hartal hours."

It is truly astonishing that a cabinet minister would have the temerity to misrepresent facts to the parliament. One wonders whether he is aware that we live in an age where the truth can be captured on film. Does he not care about the photographic evidence that directly contradicts his statement? Is he not aware of the photograph of Ahsanullah being clubbed to the ground by the police that made the front pages of the nation's newspapers? Does he have so little concern for the truth, for the intelligence of the public, for the honour and dignity of the JS, and for the reputation of his party, that he can make such statements with a straight face? Apparently so.

Now, once again, Altaf has covered himself with shame with his statement to the JS following the attack on Dr. Kamal Hossain's motorcade by pro-government Parbatya Samo Adhikar Andolon activists:

"The Sama Adhikar Andolon was enforcing a peaceful blockade programme demanding annulment of the so-called CHT peace treaty and resignation of Santu Larma . . . Gano Forum leader Dr. Kamal, with a large motorcade carrying anti-government activists, tried to get past the blockade. As the general public tried to resist them, the armed opposition activists attacked them."

I really do not have much to add by way of condemnation of this mendacity on the part of the home minister. The truth of the matter is known to everyone, and his own words disgrace Altaf far worse than any denunciation I could possibly add. But with this statement, Altaf has crossed the line once again. This time there must be consequences.

Altaf has turned into an embarrassment for the government. He is the type of politician who is bringing the BNP into disrepute. The prime minister should waste no time in instructing him to withdraw his statement to the JS about the attack on Dr. Kamal's motorcade. Failure to do so leads to the unavoidable conclusion that she approves of the job he is doing and endorses his statement to the JS.

Nor should the PM forget that she needs to focus on improving the law and order situation in advance of the next elections. The home minister has had ample time to demonstrate that he is not the man for the job.

Zafar Sobhan is an Assistant Editor of The Daily Star.