The apparently cool political arena suddenly heated up with the filing of an extortion case against Awami League president Sheikh Hasina. The situation turned more complicated when police submitted charge-sheets implicating Hasina and some top leaders of 14-party in the Paltan killing case.

Although the heat could not spread openly due to the ban on politics, its warmth can be felt while talking to general people and political leaders. Even the country's newspapers and the foreign media could send out a portion of the turmoil following the latest developments. There is a general view that all these happened after a green signal by the government, or the powers behind the government.

There is no doubt that people in general have supported the current government's move against corruption, and its other steps. But who are these general people? Are they apolitical? Do they have no political identity?

The Bangladeshi people are highly political. From poor farm-labourers to high civil bureaucrats, all are political elements. Various surveys show that more than 80 percent of the people are supporters of major political parties. Historically, Bangalees are politically conscious.

During the British era, it was the then Bengal where most of the revolutionary movements had taken place. It was the Bengali youths who first embraced martyrdom for the freedom of their country.

Again, after independence of Pakistan, the Bengali youths embraced martyrdom for the cause of their mother tongue. It is a unique example in modern history that people sacrificed their lives for protecting their mother tongue.

Then see the developments in the fifties and sixties. Bengalis waged an almost non-stop movement during the 23 years of the Pakistani regime, and finally fought an uneven war with one of the elite forces in the world -- the Pakistani armed forces -- and came out victorious.

All this could happen as the people of this deltaic region are very sensitive about their rights. They have an indomitable nature by birth, as they have to survive fighting various odds, including natural calamities like floods, cyclones, tornadoes, drought etc. That is why we could see recent incidents like Kansat or Phulbari, where a score of people died to protect their rights.

So, those who are supporting the government are obviously political elements -- supporters of political parties. If the government wants to accomplish its tasks, it must take the people, i,e certain political parties, into confidence.

I think it was getting the backing from a big political party like Awami League, which openly supported most of the initiatives of the government, especially the anti-corruption drive, despite seeing some of its top-ranking leaders being put behind bars.

But the bid to implicate the Awami League president in any case, aimed at keeping her out of politics or the country, might enrage the largest and the oldest political party in the country.

And if Awami League withdraws it support, it would be very difficult for the government to accomplish the ongoing reform tasks smoothly, even under the cover of the state of emergency. The move might turn into a barrier for the government in the long run.

And the very notion of a section of people -- that all politicians are thieves -- is also not acceptable. In fact, human beings are basically dishonest. It would not be possible to find a single human being, except the infant and the insane, in the world who did not commit any wrongdoing in his/her lifetime. We would have to take into consideration the gravity and magnitude of the dishonesty. So, it is unwise to malign the politicians alone as a whole.

Rather, it was the civil and military bureaucrats who implanted and spread corruption among the politicians and other sections of the society during the late 70s and 80s. The seeds of corruption sown in the late 70s and 80s were nurtured in the 90s, and after 2000 it turned into a full-grown tree.

It was the public servants and business people who were the beneficiaries of corruption. None of us -- civil society members, lawyers or professionals -- can evade our responsibility in pushing the country to it's present dismal state.

There are widespread rumours that the government wants to patronise a new political party, dismantling the established ones, to hand over power to at a suitable time. As part of this process, criticts say, the government has taken the step to implicate the chief of a party so that she could not return home from abroad, and to send the other one into exile.

But, if the government wants to follow the example of Pakistan, where General Musharraf sent the chiefs of the two major parties into exile a decade back, it might not work here.

The Bengali mores are very different from the Pakistanis'. Pakistanis never fought for democracy; rather they love to be ruled by the military. On the contrary, Bengalis always fought for democracy. The government should clarify its position in this regard. I think that the revered persons who are running the affairs of the state will not step into such a trap if anybody lays it in their way.

There is no denying the fact that, over the years, the country has been thrown into a state of anarchy. The majority of the people support the ongoing measures to bring back rule of law in the country. The steps that the government has taken to bring the country back on track should continue. We don't want the ongoing reform programs to stop half-way because of unnecessary obstacles. A democratic government is the final aspiration of the people.

The onus is on the current caretaker government, to hand over power to a government elected through a free, fair and credible election. We know that it will require considerable time to make preparations for the task. But it must not be too long, so that people cannot say that the administration is adopting a dillydallying tactic to deceive the people.

The political leadership, who are also losing patience, should also demonstrate their fortitude by helping to cleanse the country, as well as their respective parties, if they believe in democracy and good governance.

After all, people believe that it is the political parties who are responsible for all the ills of the country. They would also have to take a vow to ensure good governance and transparency in running the country if voted to power.

Nazrul Islam is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star.