| While the world struggles against swine flu our ruling party, the Awami League, is being debilitated by the 'mouth flu'. What is seen as the strongest mandate to any political party to govern since independence is being corroded by a daily dose of unthinking, unnecessary and self-contradictory comments which are making the government look confused, ill-coordinated and desperate with no evidence of team work. What the opposition is failing to do, some ruling party leaders, ministers and advisers are achieving for them, namely making the government controversial. Such controversies are distracting the public from appreciating some major initiatives the government has taken and the bold budget it has just adopted. It all started with our garrulous commerce minister who, after being made the coordinator of the BDR investigation, went berserk with his nearly daily comments on militant involvement, foreign conspiracy, politicisation of BDR etc. most of which turned out to be figments of his imagination if we are to believe the probe report so far made public. No sooner had that subsided than a new controversy arose with the summoning of the ACC chairman and some of its staff to the parliamentary committee on public undertakings which has brought the parliament and a statutory body face-to-face, leaving it now upon the Speaker to decide on its future course. While the babbling ministers put the government under ever newer controversies, (was it necessary for the LGRD minister and AL spokesperson to publicly contradict the foreign minister, even if he disagreed with her? Couldn't it have been discussed in the next cabinet meeting?) the one we are now about to discuss has peaked in its inept handling. We are of course referring to the issue of 'poisoning' Sheikh Hasina's food during her recent internment. The controversy was started by the deputy leader of the House, Sajeda Chowdhury, not the epitome of authenticity and circumspection. She said that an attempt was made to harm Sheikh Hasina by poisoning her food while in jail. Later, she amended her statement and claimed that what she meant was that the AL leader was suffering from food poisoning. On Friday last, the PM's health adviser, Prof. Mudasser Ali, added his voice to the controversy by saying that Hasina was served with food laced with poison to kill her to implement the so-called 'minus-two' formula. While Sajeda Chowdhury did not specifically mention about any attempt to murder the AL chief, Prof. Mudasser left no doubt and even identified two advisers responsible for it. We have two issues to raise here. Is this claim authentic? If yes, then is this the manner to raise it? We start by accepting, for the sake of argument, that the claim is true. If that is the case then we as a people, as a nation and as millions of voters who have elected her to power have the right to know, see and hear the proof of this vile, heinous and despicable plot. As Sheikh Hasina's physician, Prof. Mudasser's statement lends authenticity to this claim, Prof. Mudasser has the legal, moral and historic obligation to bare before us all the relevant evidence supporting his claim. The ball is now squarely in his court to present before the nation credible proof of what he claimed. Again, if we accept the claim to be true, we have to ask if this is the way to bring such a serious matter such as that of attempt on Sheikh Hasina's life before the public. Take for instance the two occasions when Sajeda Chowdhury and Mudasser Ali decided to tell the people of this vile plot. The former was addressing the 84th birth anniversary of the slain veteran AL leader, Syed Kumruzzaman. The venerable health adviser chose the occasion of national birth registration day to make his sensational revelation. Are birth anniversary and birth registration day occasions to talk about such a serious matter as the alleged attempt on the life of Bangabandhu's daughter and our elected Prime Minister? The gravity of the revelation demanded a far more serious handling of the matter. We think, before being made public, a thorough investigation should have been conducted and all relevant facts brought together and then the public should have been properly informed through a special press conference. We know how Bangabandhu and his entire family, save Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana, were brutally murdered. We also know repeated attempts on Sheikh Hasina's life were made. The August 21 event remains a vivid, tragic and frightening memory in the nation's mind, along with the fact that Khaleda Zia's government made no attempt to bring out the facts and even tried to divert the investigation and thereby give shelter to real killers. When such is the background, any remote evidence of attempt on Sheikh Hasina's life must be dealt with in the most seriousness and circumspection. Regrettably we consider the actions of the aforementioned two leaders as making light of a very grave matter. We think revealing an attempt on PM's life in such a casual and cavalier manner amounted to trivialisation of something very serious. Birth anniversary of a former leader and national birth registration day are not occasions when attempts on our Prime Minister's life should be discussed if it is to be taken seriously. If credible evidence cannot be produced to substantiate the present claim then a great harm will have been done to the PM's prestige and something which is most sensitive and tragic will have been made light of. It will be a case of the proverbial crying wolf and thereby laying the door open to the real wolf coming. The Prime Minister must rein in her babbling colleagues to prevent further damage to her government, party and to what she is so desperately trying to achieve. |
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