Mayor Mohiuddin's 'revelations'

We find his comments most irresponsible and unworthy of someone holding an important elected office. His irresponsibility verges on trivialising national security as he does not provide any proof to back his outrageous claims. He does not seem to have any idea that his statement involves three countries with whom we have extremely important bilateral relations and that implications of his statement range from willful subversion of a neighbour's security to deliberate participation in the military plans of others that goes against our national interest.

Our politicians have become so accustomed to making unfounded and mischievous statements in public that they are never bothered about the overall impact of what they are saying on the country's interest. If such politicians happen to belong to the opposition then their public utterings become even irrational and utterly irresponsible. It is as if being in the opposition exonerates leaders from all sorts of restraint and accountability of their statements.

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What however makes the Mayor's comments more grievous than the usual is the fact that they involve countries like United States, India and Pakistan. We are all aware of the extreme sensitivity of India about the role of Pakistan and the ISI in its northeastern states. For one of our elected mayors to publicly speculate that Bangladesh and the United States are involved without providing any proof is a kind of irresponsibility which would have easily led to demands of his resignation in any other democratic society where accountability of public office holders is more strictly observed.

Given the serious nature of what he said, we demand that either he provides concrete evidence of his claims or withdraws fully what he has said and apologizes to the public for having said it. That is the least demonstration of responsibility that we expect from him.