These days politicians of all persuasions have been experiencing an extraordinary hard time. All agree, however, that only way out of the present situation is a dialogue between the two large political forces. However, it looks now a remote possibility since all hopes of a dialogue has been dashed in a meeting of the government's kitchen cabinet few days ago.

The dialogue proposal of the PM is now turning into a bloody demonstration. How have we arrived to this situation is well known. When the PM extended the olive branch towards the opposition (after failing earlier on the issue of terrorism) in terms of resolving the election reform issues proposed by the opposition leader in the parliament, it looked publicly though that the ice has broken, the two rivals at the end will sit down and resolve all the differences for the greater interest of the nation.

Since then, what happened, once again, is well known. At this moment, the age old blame game surfaced again. The BNP Secretary General, Mannan Bhuyian, on the other day in Mymensingh has said, the opposition never wanted dialogue since now they abandoned this on a lame excuse and resorted to anarchy. The AL General Secretary, Abdul Jalil, in reply, made it clear that the government was never serious of any dialogue with the opposition instead, the dialogue proposal from the government quarter is a ploy to destroy the ongoing movement surrounding the election reform agenda. He also made it clear that the opposition will resist holding any election with the support of the people, if the reform agenda have not been met.

Whom to believe, Secretary General Bhuiyan or General Secretary Jalil? Both of them are highly regarded politicians in the eyes of the people. In the case of Bhuiyan, one may however raise a point that, if the government was serious about the dialogue, as a senior member of the cabinet Bhuiyan should have been included in the negotiating team. Abdul Jalil seems more reassuring and he may even throw a challenge to the opponents by borrowing from Carmeu de, “oppression can only survive through silence”.

Under these circumstances, the dialogue is a remote possibility and the opposition, of course, ended up with the choice of demonstration. It came to media recently that, the government is also ready for facing any eventualities. They even threatened to stage a counter demonstration with the support of the people. In other words, we like it or not, confrontation in the street is the way forward. As an observer of this game like many readers, one would be curious about asking, where the people stand in this milieu?

Observing the game from a distance, one would end up with two possible conclusions. The drama now by all means is a game of nerves. The team that breaks down first will have to go back to the pavilion as looser. Let us make an analogy. The government team and its captain, on the one hand, expect that the people after some time will become fed-up with the opposition's demonstration programmes and will turn their backs to the opposition and the ultimate victory is there's. On the other hand, the opposition team and the captain believe that the demonstration is not only geared towards capturing power legitimately, it is also about making the people empowered against the misrule of any future governments.

As an humble part of the spectators, our purpose here is not to take any position since the readers would know, nowadays like the game of cricket, there are three umpires in the political arena: the CTG, the EC and, of course, the law and order enforcing agencies. At this moment, one can, however, be convinced that (would be) chief of the CTG and the CEC in turn are going to play a role of a 12th man of the government team. It is, however, not known now what the third umpire is going to do.

In summary, at this moment, one can say that the game is almost equally poised since both the teams have almost equal number of supporters, at least, from the view points of number of cadres and their godfathers. The government team has an inherent advantage of having the police under its fold. This cannot be said in the case of civil administration since, from the latest count, almost half of this mob did not receive any pat on their backs from the incumbent during the last four and a half years. The opposition team, although currently looks like an underdog, could bounce back any moment if the price of essentials keep rising at the same pace.

One must remember that, with western style democracy every one wants to play an underdog. Bangladesh democracy is not a western democracy, thus, this does not apply here. In other words, with an existing uneven pitch full of grass, the opposition team has no other choice but to ball odd bouncers to the extent that the rules of the game have not been broken. It remains to be seen how the restless players of the government team can convert the bouncers into 4s and 6s. If the last four and a half years is a guide, there is a good chance of the government team failing to make hook shots without breaking the rules, consequently risking being falling apart.

Dr Moazzem Hossain is a freelance contributor.