We Reject This Politics
Negative politics has been taken on to a new plane of morbidity. The opposition led by BNP have stretched their dawn to dusk hartal up to midnight tiding. This comes as a mischievous counterpoise, with a somewhat laser efficiency, against the EC's extension of deadline for submission of nomination papers for municipal polls from 5 to 10 pm tonight to keep out of hartal hours. The message blaring out of the opposition's bitter move reads "We won't participate in the elections, nor shall we allow these to take place" at all".
On top of hartal being imposed on people we now have the scenario of an electoral boycott getting foisted on them. This thoroughly overbearing politics has additionally taken on the character of not merely going ballistic against the government but also being unsparing with the Election Commission, an independent statutory body better left along to conduct elections.
Even though the AL 'is reaping the whirlwind it had sown', such a naive political statement cannot exonerate them from the charge of making the entire people ransom to their feelings of bitterness against the ruling party. What about my personal rights to both participation in the polls as well as pursuit of my normal avocations? If the opposition feel so confident of their popularity and the justness their cause then there is all the more reason why they should let the local polls take place yield to a solid evidence of their approval rating among the people. BNP, or any other party, may have a right to refuse to participate in a particular poll, but it cannot deny others' right to do so, except by ridiculing their own democratic professions. In fact, each time this happens, BNP's credentials as a major political force goes another notch down.
Elections ought to be highly welcome things because they produce new leadership, release new energy and create new visions of growth. People normally enjoy exercising their right to elect their leaders but increasingly this has come to be vitiated by bitter attitudes. Democracy is not sustainable with electoral boycotts.
While we find no word strong enough to decry the negative politics of the opposition we are nonetheless aghast over the continuing lock-jawed silence of the ruling party on the question of initiating a trouble-shooting dialogue with the opposition. It is extremely impolitic on their part to underestimate the gravity of the situation which is fast engulfing us.
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