Shanir dasha at Shanir Akhra

The ungrateful people of Shanir Akhra had the akhri (final) showdown with their representative and chased him down the road to oblivion. It must have been a sorry sight for the kins of the roadrunner (remember the comic?), but it surely evoked pristine laughter in the citizens. It reminded some amongst us of the childhood rhyme: "Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall ..." The king's men, the police in this case, tried to put Humpty together again, but it appears things have really taken a turn for the worse for him.

One after another, stories of his grabbing of land and other property in Demra and Shanir Akhra area are coming out in the media and the man is finding it difficult to explain how he got unabashedly rich within the last four years. Hmmm ... the boon of joining politics! But the latest scoop is the gentleman is now talking incoherently. Even his own party men are tense lest he says something highly damaging for them all! One friendly suggestion: Better keep him under sedation and wake him up well after the next election, what say?

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Now that the Saarcpol is going to be created by the Saarc member countries it will be easy for us to "look for shatrus (enemies)" hiding in these countries and have them extradited without any hassle. The home ministers of the member countries have reached an agreement on working in many areas, especially containing drug trafficking and terrorism.

Very good. But what about the gunadhar putras (blessed sons) of the MPs, chief whips, and ministers, and their gunadhar friends who are doing all sorts of illegal and anti-people activities within the country? Are they above the law just because their gunadhar fathers happen to be in politics? Most of the criminals hiding in various neighbouring countries allegedly maintain contacts with these blessed sons, brothers, and nephews of many of our high and mighty politicians. Will the concerned ministry and law enforcing agencies declare them as shatrus and go after them? So, when our case looks like "gharer shatru Bibhishon" (a line from the epic Ramayana, meaning when we have enemy within) what good would it do to search for them elsewhere?

Many of us can hardly comprehend the ways the police, courts, and criminal laws work in this country. We see innocent people being harassed, arrested against no specific charges, physically abused and tortured to death by the police. We have even seen how some police officials gave enough leverage to some local goons to push an innocent girl to commit suicide.

On the other hand, we see hardened criminals being given jamai ador (VIP treatment) while they are in custody or being escorted from the police station to the courthouse. They get best accommodation and food and even cell phones inside jailhouses! And now we read in utter disbelief how the self-confessed bombers and killers of the judges, policemen and common bystanders continue to deny the country's laws and courts ( and thereby, the country's constitution) standing in open courts!

But these same persons are given the opportunity to counter question the prosecutors in a bid to create confusion in everyone! Only some days back, Shaikh Abdur Rahman said that he does not believe in the laws of the land, as these were man-made and thereby not Islamic. He openly confessed to giving orders for throwing bombs on the judges and policemen as they represented a corrupt system of governance.

What more do we need to put them on summary trial and see the back of them forever? Will the charade go on till the time comes for the caretaker government to take over and then the incumbents will heave a sigh of relief?

We reported in this column last week on semi-transparent beings standing in the line with mortal voters. Today we want to report on the doings of some mischievous dogs. According to our fact-finding reporting team, now dogs are being partially blamed for the flawed voters' list.

It is alleged that some Election Commission officials have complained that in many houses they were scared to enter because of dogs. "Beware of Dogs' read the sign on doors in big bold letters. We wonder what had happened to the doorbells? If vegetablewallas, milkwallas, chickenwallas, and fakirs can ring the bells two hundred times in a day, why couldn't the young smart boys from the EC do so? It beats us, doesn't it?

Finally, the rainwaters are here and we need to buy kosha nouka (small boats) to go to office. You see, before the rain, rainwater comes first in Dhaka and refuses to go away. Roads go waist-deep in filthy water and everyday on TV channels you will hear various mind-boggling explanations given by the honourable mayor, the honourable LGRD minister, and many others.

You will also see, one of these evenings, eleven pumps pumping out water from one side of the road to inundate the other side with the mayor or the minister giving instructions. Why eleven, you ask. Actually there were twenty pumps, but nine conked out in front of the VIP guests. Happy wading in the rainwater for the next six months!

Shahnoor Wahid is a Senior Assistant Editor of The Daily Star.