Mostafa Kamal Majumder
The Awami League is setting up equipment for video conference of party chief Sheikh Hasina with voters to ensure that she can reach her messages to a maximum number of people at the shortest possible time, it is learnt.
This is a technological response to BNP chief Begum Khaleda Zia’s whirlwind tour of the country and day and night programmes of meetings and rallies which are drawing large crowds. Enthusiastic supporters have been reported waiting till the early hours braving wintry chill and fog to attend her meetings.
Sheikh Hasina is expected to have video conferences with people from Tungipara and her Sudha Sadan residence in Dhaka where equipment have been installed. Singaporean company Singtel has also set up video conference facility in Keshabpur Upazila of Jessore, sources say.
It may be recalled during her days in detention at her Dhaka Cantonment residence Begum Khaleda used to have teleconference through mobile phones with people not only at different corners of Bangladesh but also with Bangladesh citizens living in the USA and the UK.
It is to be seen what would be the response of BNP leaders to the video conference campaign being organised by their arch rivals in the AL. Video conferencing arrangement is not only high tech but also high cost. This will enable the AL chief to address people at many places where she would not be required to move physically.
How effective the communication for attracting votes would be is an interesting subject to investigate. AL leaders and workers believe that use of this technology would enable her to interact with people also after sunset as she avoids addressing campaign rallies at night on security considerations.
After the recent Mumbai terrorist attacks the administration here called for precaution against the fear of such extremist actions during the election campaign.
Political parties and their leaders started using electronic campaign materials like audio and video cassettes during the first election following the restoration of parliamentary democracy in 1991. These have now been replaced by video and audio discs from which recorded songs and speeches are being distributed. The use of loudspeakers to play those for campaign purposes have been restricted this time though.
Posters of candidates hanging from ropes tied across roads and lanes all over cities and towns have created a spectre that is reflective of the momentum that the campaign has reached now. Against this backdrop, reported threat of death to AL chief Sheikh Hasina from an extremist organisation, aired by intelligence agencies of a neighbouring country, has created concern in the country.
Meanwhile, the news that a speeding truck ploughed through a BNP procession in Bogra where Begum Khaleda Zia’s campaign rally was on the other day killing six activists came as a shock. In another incident, a speeding bus hit a vehicle in Begum Zia’s motorcade in Serajganj injuring several Ekushey Television journalists who are now under treatment at the Combined Military Hospital. Khaleda’s motorcade had once been hit by a truck in Pabna in the late nineties seriously injuring a number of escorting policemen.
Braving the hazards the leaders of the two major political parties are now all-out in their campaigns. The race is to attract a majority of voters in their favour for having an edge over the other in popularity. The noise thus being created all over the country also by their candidates and their supporters to woo voters may cause temporary irritation to some people. But this is the beauty of democracy where the people are the sources of all earthly power.
Courtesy: nation.ittefaq.com
