The nation appears to be breathing a sigh of relief following the prospect of a dialogue between the ruling and opposition parties. On Tuesday, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) acting secretary general, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, wrote to the ruling Awami League (AL) general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam, urging him to initiate a dialogue, which was apparently appreciated by the ruling party. In response, Syed Ashraful Islam called up his BNP counterpart. Political analysts believe that these series of events may help to melt the ice between the two major political rivals which have been at loggerheads over the system of the poll-time government for the past two years.
Terming the development ‘ice-melting’, eminent jurist Barrister Rafique ul Haque said, “This is good news for the people. I hope that both sides show sincerity for resolving the current political impasse.”
Dr Kamal Hossain, one of the authors of the Constitution, also praised the proposal of a dialogue, saying that the current deadlock could be sorted out through further rounds of discussions among the political parties.
In the same vein, civil society members, top business leaders and diplomats hailed the recent developments as a ray of hope for the top leadership of the two parties to take the nation away from the ‘disastrous consequences’ that would follow from their failure to resolve the crisis.
Upbeat by their landslide victory in the recent civic polls, the main opposition has been threatening to paralyse the government in case of the government’s failure to meet their demand for restoration of the caretaker government system, which was scrapped by the AL government through the 15th amendment.
Tension started running high, when, in response to the opposition’s demand, the top leaders of the government, including the Prime Minister, said that there would be no question of swaying to the opposition’s demand.
At one stage, when opposition leaders urged people to be ready to start a protest movement, with knives and daggers in hands, after October 25, the government responded by imposing a ban on rallies and processions in the capital, thereby causing country-wide apprehension of severe political violence.
A prolonged political violence gripped the country in 2007 when the two parties had failed to reach a consensus, which was followed by the takeover of power by the military-backed government that put democracy in the mortuary for two years.
-With The Independent input
