A chain of events has created a haze of confusion around the state minister in charge of the power ministry. It started when he had threatened to root out corruption from this sector in a recent workshop. He reportedly said he smelt corruption in several power projects including one in Tongi. Well, those were mighty unsavoury words to be uttered in public, especially when the entire government machinery is geared towards denying all reports of corruption.

Undoubtedly, he earned the wrath of the high and mighty ones by doing so. So the chain of events began to move fast. According to reports, within hours he was summoned to the prime minister's office, obviously to do some "explaining." Next, he was asked to join the ministry of communication as state minister. The chain then began to move faster.

State minister Talukder refused to "commute" himself to the ministry of communication. He decided to submit his resignation instead. Now it seems the power minister is not empowered enough to play the game of "power" with his more powerful opponents.

Meanwhile, confused citizens want their homes to be "lighted" and themselves enlightened on the result of the high stake game of power.

Ershad back on track?
It seems former president and chairman of Jatiya Party HM Ershad has been able to pull the spotlight towards him on the political stage for a while. That he intends to play his cards carefully this time, despite having no aces up his sleeve, became evident when senior joint secretary general of BNP Tarique Rahman and state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar went to his residence and held a discussion.

And just like any other closed door meetings between power-hungry people, this latest one at Baridhara also managed to let out rumours, speculations, gossip, guesswork, hearsay, and conjectures in abundance. Why so? Because anything about and "around" Ershad generates tremendous interest in people today, as it did in his heyday.

That's why one will hear such discussions everywhere: Is he going to join the 4-party alliance? Has he been offered the chair of the president? Has he been given the promise that he would be kept out of jail?

We feel such public attention, both positive and negative, could be exploited by him diligently to gain more grounds in the latest political race that he is likely to run. It's run or ruin situation for him. As a last chance to be in power, he has to play his cards even more carefully now against powerful opponents. And his opponents are numerous.

Reports tell us that some leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami are not too happy about the latest entente between JP and BNP and they are becoming quite vocal about it. On the other hand, his own brother GM Quader is likely to quit JP if Ershad finally joined the Alliance. Therefore, it looks like Ershad will have to fight enemies both outside and within. And one "err," and Ershad could be out of politics for a long time.

Toilet diplomacy!
An AFP report from Kuala Lumpur says that a high level Chinese diplomat and his Japanese counterpart held important talks inside a toilet during the break in a security meeting in the Malaysian capital! (My, my! Don't they have anything called pride? They should come to Bangladesh to learn how to behave like a diplomat.)

Well, the report elaborates on how the foreign ministers of Japan and China accidentally met one another in the same washroom during a break.

The ministers lost no time to exchange notes on some important points. For the next 20 minutes their worried staff members waited outside biting their nails. Finally they emerged from the toilet and went back to the formal meeting. This incident was promptly dubbed as "Toilet Diplomacy."

What is there for us to learn from this interesting episode? A lot, we guess. Since there is very little possibility of our political leaders of the two camps bumping onto each other in any toilet, they even refuse to meet at some better place, like a 5-star hotel or residence of a neutral person. They refuse to talk directly with one another though they are quite aware that the country is slowly but steadily limping towards anarchy and ruination.

Surprisingly, the two general secretaries of the two main parties are all the time talking to the people, via media channels, instead of one another. And when they talk to the people, they always complain about one another. This actually reminds us of the legendary mother-in-law and daughter-in-law syndrome in this part of the world. Why are the two not on talking terms? Aren't these two overgrown gentlemen behaving a bit child-like?

We therefore wonder if the two diplomats of the two countries having a long history of enmity can talk inside a toilet, why can't our politicians even talk over telephone to break ice? Are their respective "egos" more important than the fate of the nation?

Shahnoor Wahid is a Senior Assistant Editor of The Daily Star.