A people's victory

Kansat event has exposed the height of inefficiency of bureaucracy badly guided by inexperienced politicians. The bureaucracy of a developing country with a colonial past (like Bangladesh) hold more power than the bureaucracy of a developed country. As such there is greater danger of abuse of power by them. To a person from an advanced western country with democratic tradition it may be difficult to understand as to why the cases of so many police firings are heard in developing countries. One of the reasons is public accountability of check on powers of the bureaucracy who otherwise are prone to use it at the slightest provocation or need. In fact many of the police firings are simply unnecessary.

Due to lack of public accountability sometimes even a sound government policy also fails due to overzealousness of bureaucracy. In India one of the main reasons of the fall of Indira Gandhi was, reportedly, overzealousness of the public servants for making the family planning programmes successful. In the then East Pakistan it was the police firing in 1952 (an act of administrative indiscretion) which resulted ultimately in the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. Provision for judicial review can arrest such situation. Legal scholars are of the opinion that primary value of judicial review is its deterrent effect on the overzealous administrative officials. However, in these days of high politicisation, concept of judicial review appears to be irrelevant.

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Withdrawal of police forces from Kansat cannot absolve the government of police excesses committed during the last three months. At the same time it is yet to be seen as to how far the ministerial government committee becomes successful in solving the crisis. Also to be seen is how the government reacts in regard to the removal of the local BNP law maker.

We are not yet aware of the full facts of the crisis. We may know in detail about it after the 11-member Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) probe committee report is out. On the other hand the government should form an inquiry committee headed by a High Court judge. This committee must pinpoint the public servants responsible for turning the local movement into a national crisis. Appropriate punitive actions should to taken against them to bring back confidence of the people. Let us see as to how much the government is sincere about developing the sense of accountability among the public servants even though politicisation has already blunted their senses.

We are happy that people's struggle has ultimately succeeded. Peace has returned to Kansat. Normal activities of Sonamasjid Land Port supposedly has resumed. It is, however, not yet clear as to why the government almost surrendered to the Palli Bidyut Unnayan Sangram Parishad suddenly. Is it because it was turning into a political issue? We cannot say all the demands of the villagers were reasonable. We do not know as to what may be the repercussion of this negotiation in other Palli Bidyut Unnayan Parishads when it would be known to them that (a) meter charges have been cancelled, (b) monthly connection charge has been reduced from Tk. 105 to Tk 78, (c) no fine charged for taking connection from a house or institution to the venue of a religious programme or an institution and (d) no fines charged for the bills due since August 8, 2005; besides monetary compensation from Tk 3000 to Tk 200000 will be given to the affected villagers.

These decisions may lead to system loss, loss of income of Palli Bidyut Sangstha. Thus the government has to accept financial loss (recurring and non-recurring) because of inefficient handling of certain demands of villagers. Police excess is certainly deplorable, police officers must try to understand that the excess committed by police force will ultimately help the opposition not the administration.

Kansat tragedy should wake up the government from slumber. It must remain vigilant about the possible effect of Kansat crisis elsewhere in the country. However it must try hard to keep the commitments it has made to the Palli Bidyut Unnayan Parishad to save itself from further humiliation. One thing is clear. The people of Bangladesh have not forgotten that people's force is the ultimate force and its victory is inevitable.

ABMS Zahur is a retired Joint Secretary.