However, the dangerous part of the analogy is about to unravel only now, when the BNP, after feigning innocence and reasonableness by dutifully going through the motions of an interlocution, is back to its self-sameness.

Its redoubtable secretary-general is learnt to have declared, in unequivocal terms, that Justice KM Hasan would be the head of the caretaker administration, something that constituted the bone of contention both before and during the course of dialogue. Throwing off the unnecessary veil of pretension at long last he summarily dismissed the idea of any alternative to the arrangement scripted earlier. To add insult to injury he, however, expressed the desire to continue with the dialogue, perhaps to avoid the responsibility of the talk's failure.

This development wasn't entirely unexpected. Preparations were made by the BNP-led four party alliance, throughout its five year rule, to recapture the citadel of power to safeguard its plundered wealth and to perpetuate the pernicious practice through depravity of any kind.

The kurta-clad Jamaatis and the suited politicians of nationalist brand are beholden to each other on this point of having the best of both the worlds.

Even if they miserably failed to govern the country, making a mess of everything affecting public life like power, water, gas and fertilizers, as well as the prices of the essentials and basic security, they never hid their unabashed zeal in doctoring the next general election, an obvious hurdle in their power game.

Through organized repression and political killings they got rid of the star leaders and activists of the opposition. They politicized the entire administration, with favourites placed in key positions. In a series of clever moves in the judiciary they ensured the appointment of a party man as the head of the caretaker government. As regards the election commission, and its bizarre and biased activities, the less one speaks, the better.

They cannot let this blue-print go haywire only because the ragtag Awami League of today objects to it. Failing to brush aside the oppositions' electoral reforms proposal, when they finally took cognizance of it, they considered the opposition's agitation and activism to be mere pinpricks, and combated it as a matter of ordinary law and order problem. But when the demand gained momentum and grew increasingly violent, in the power wielders' established policy of blowing and hot and cold, the alliance government thought it prudent to agree to a secretary-level talk, presumably to buy time and in the process tame the opposition.

Already beaten hollow and shattered by the officially-backed BNP cadres, the AL perforce swallowed the bait, sparking unprecedented optimism among the public. It was an ecstatic moment for the nation which instinctively pinned its hopes on the dialogue.

Yet, no discerning observer could have missed the alliance's shrewd move behind its indefinitely marking time and stretching the time frame of the dialogue to its elastic limit -- a point where the question of constitutional limitation could be conveniently raised, and the opposition persuaded to accept the fait accompli of Justice Hasan as the head of the caretaker government. In hindsight, Jalil was hardly a match for Bhuiyan's guile.

Notwithstanding the laudatory initiative of the business community and an assorted civil society for resolving the current impasse, what cannot but be said is that their non-partisan stance, and insistence on the two sides reaching an understanding through mutual concession or give and take, went perfectly in favour of the establishment responsible for creating the impasse with foul intentions.

So, any concession given to it will be tantamount to the acceptance of conditions prejudicial to a free and fair election. While appreciating the business community's concern and patriotic impulse, it ought to be said that the approach is faulty. It is a crime to pretend neutrality in an hour of national crisis, as the Greek philosopher Plato once said. When taking sides, it may not necessarily be in favour of a party or person. One can take the side of a cause, which, in the present case, is a credible electoral process.

The shape of things with regard to the country's politics remains unclear. Neither is it clear how the authorities will contain the escalating violence. What is, however, obvious is that the polity is once again on the brink, and in the throes of a fresh violence portending a long period of uncertainty.

Brig ( retd) Hafiz is former DG of BIISS.