Banish hartal!
Azad Miah Oldham, UK
I agree with the editor (March 13) that the time is overdue for our greedy politicians to end hartal politics. This is year 2005 and people all over the world laugh at us when they hear this. There is a difference between a hartal in which people participate willingly, and a hartal where people are beaten and intimidated to participate. This is not a democratic practice, this is hostage-taking; plain and simple. If you want to exercise your rights by calling hartals then go ahead, as long as you can find someone who is willing to participate with you. But you can't beat me to death just because you want to exercise your rights. What about my rights? I have the right "not to" participate in any hartal. I believe the AL can be persuaded to shun hartal politics but I am not sure about the BNP. Leaders of the BNP have been coming out lately to tell us how bad hartal is (as if we didn't know), but they never tell us if they will not use it when they go in opposition. But we know very well why they are not committing themselves. If the BNP loses in the next general election the first thing it will do is denounce the results, accuse the winning party of vote-rigging and then immediately begin a programme of non-stop hartal in the name of serving the people (just like the present opposition, AL). This is all pre-planned by both AL and BNP. How can anyone serve the people by preventing them from going to work and by starving them to death? I would love to know. This is our country and we demand an immediate end of hartal politics. Full stop.
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