Editorial
Ruling party approach confusing
Opposition should still go to parliament
Unfortunately, only ten more working days remaining of the JS budget session which began on June 12 there is no sign yet that the opposition would end its boycott anytime soon. The national budget was tabled in parliament sans AL presence and it was also passed on June 30 amidst opposition absence. Although the AL had vowed to oppose what it called an 'anti-people budget', the two most important dates -- June 12 when the budget was presented and June 30 when it was adopted passed off without any opposition participation. Meanwhile, the controversial remuneration and privileges amendment bills in respect of the Prime Minister, Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Ministers, Ministers of State and Deputy Ministers were introduced on the floor of the House.Now, after a four-day recess, the parliament is scheduled to resume work, with only one day intervening, on July 5. But the prospect for the opposition returning to parliament remains bleak as their hiatus with the government is yawning beyond a point of redemption. If earlier on we had called upon the government to go the extra-mile we would now urge them to be just right and consistent with their reflexes. Just when the Deputy Speaker invited the treasury bench and the opposition for talks to resolve the situation arising out of the opposition demand for an unqualified apology by State Minister for Housing Alamgir Kabir for his 'derogatory remarks' against Sheikh Hasina contradictory signals got put across as state minister for sports took a dig at the leader of the opposition accusing her of plotting a coup d'etat against BNP government. Almost two years down the line there is this talk of coup d'etat! Ruling party MP Hafizuddin minced no words either. Then, the PM's parliamentary advisor SQ Chowdhury resorted to unprintable tirade against Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Of course, he came hard on former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, too. Even the prime minister berated the opposition for pandering to the Taliban or al-Queda. In the same breath, she invited them to join parliament, thereby sounding equivocal in her approach on the whole. All this when efforts were ostensibly underway to engage the opposition in talks aimed to iron out the latest spurt in differences. Even allowing for the fact that the opposition must attend the parliament out of their own obligations, honestly, how could the initiative for a dialogue sit in with such an alienating series of utterances plonked in? How could things jell as far as the prospect for dialogue went? In spite of all these we feel the opposition ought to end their indefinite boycott of parliament immediately and see the wisdom of attending the remainder ten days of the JS session when the full quota of parliamentary standing committees is likely to be formed.
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