Even mourning is muzzled!

And now -- thanks to the rabid political hooliganism orchestrated by ruling party activists -- unprecedented roadblocks were placed on this year's observance of August 15 as a national mourning day by the opposition Awami League. In at least 20 different locations of the country, BNP activists openly pounced on the mourning programmes, rallies, and destitute feeding organised by the AL in commemoration of Bangabandhu's assassination with grateful and grief-stricken remembrance of the supreme sacrifices he had made for the liberation of Bangladesh.

That even the mourning of the death of a leader who led the people to freedom was allowed to be subjected to such demeaning treatment by political opponents is utterly repugnant to minimum sensibilities about decency and decorum in inter-party politics. There could be glass-house implications to the obstructionist attitude displayed by BNP loyalists to the AL mourning programmes ostensibly on the ground that the PM's birth anniversary celebrations were being affected. We hope a bad precedent has not been set, but supposing if the commemorative programmes related to the assassination of president Ziaur Rahman would be even slightly marred by any reactive segment of opposition loyalists, how unfortunate that must be.

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That is exactly the reason why a government, like the society at large, must never fail to reflect an immutable attachment to certain core values which include respect for national leaders, let alone that for a leader of the stature of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

We can't think that the assaults on Awami League processionists and their programmes originated in any central decision. In that view of the matter, we urge the BNP high command to condemn the oppressive behaviour of those activists by way of publicly disassociating themselves from the latter's misdeeds. BNP must distance itself from the elements who bring the party not only bad name but also spell doom for the future of any working relationship with the opposition. If it fails to do so, we will be forced to conclude about collusion at the highest levels of the ruling party.