But we may say this with full conviction that it would take lot more than a cursory look to fathom the degree of deception, intrigue, sham, trickery, and lies that shape politics in Bangladesh. Compared to what has been happening in this country, the plot in Dan Brown's book is mild and bland, and the power-hungry politicians of Washington look like innocuous schoolteachers.

To go a little deeper into the subject, let us start with the power sector in Bangladesh. Can any corrupt government of the world, past or present, match the deception that took place in this sector for the last five years? Citizens sweated profusely during the frequent and long hours of power outage, and vital factories and industries lost business. And all the while, if you remember, the state minister in charge of the ministry for four years kept giving one explanation after another as to why electricity was playing truant. To pacify angry citizens, he and his team spun stories about how various power plants were being installed and how the modernization of old ones was going on. Accordingly, millions of dollars came to be poured into the sector in the name of improving electricity generation and distribution system. But nothing happened on the ground. While huge sums found their way to the pockets of the syndicate godfathers, the result remained the same -- a big zero.

The classic tale of deception and lies in the history on Bangladesh centered around the rise and widening of the network of some dangerously armed religious fundamentalist elements throughout the country in last five years. Though the names of some of the ruling party MPs were mentioned in various media and which were also on the record of the police stations of the area. But the government chose to remain on denial mode from day one and its spokespersons kept on spinning incredulous and incredible stories until the day when bombs were exploded by the JMB activists in 64 districts in a synchronized manner.

This particular event and the explosions of lethal bombs in various public places that killed a number of people caused the baffled administration to come out with the worst possible "truth" under the garb of deception. They came out with dubious explanations regarding the rise of the fundamentalist elements, carefully choosing words so that no one could accuse the government of giving them shelter or patronage.

And then at one point of time they chose to play hide and seek game as to the whereabouts and arrest of the top JMB leaders. It was only after extreme national and international pressure that the law enforcers finally flushed the rats out of their holes.

Even after their arrest, the authorities preferred to play hide and seek in the literal sense of the term. They were taken from one place to another in complete secrecy and they were denied the chance to talk to the media. People wondered what would the extremist elements have to say to the media, and why should the authorities stop them from doing that? Yes, they were given death sentence by the court, but the immediate past government did not have the heart to hang them for the obvious reason of not upsetting some of the Islam pasand political parties. They have to rely heavily on them during the next elections.

The next deception case that will go down in history as unique and unparalleled is the creation of the "Voter List" by the Election Commission. Never before has so much energy been spent by the authors to produce something so flawed, taking recourse to deception, trickery, and lies. They not only came up with one dubious reason after another to confuse the people, they even showed the audacity to play down the decisions of the Supreme Court and High Court with regard to the preparation of the list that is so vital for holding of a free and fair election.

Last but not least, the intrigue that played the dominant role in the latest political developments in the country centered on the appointment of the chief of the caretaker government. The memory is still fresh in the minds of the readers so there is no point going over that here. Nevertheless, one has to give full credit to the authors of the cloak and dagger intrigue that kept the entire nation on tenterhooks for days.

The brilliant manifestation of deception and intrigue that we have seen during the last five years would beat the collective creative ideas of not only Dan Brown but also his illustrious predecessors like Alistair McLain, Ian Fleming, Wilbur Smith, and Steve Berry. It would be a lifetime's effort for a novel writer to be able to understand ten percent of the intrigues that shape our politics.

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