Hartal is the worst form of political agitation in our country. If any issues go against the party which is not in power may call on hartal to show their disregard to the position of the authority. This is the popular political trend in our country.
If any political party is aggrieved by the government, it calls hartal irrespective of the issues related to public interest. The reason for hartal is not necessarily related to the interest of the country or the people. It is true to all the political parties of the country. While Awami League was in the opposition, they called hartal for indefinite period which lasted for 21 days in some occasions. The total days of the hartal has crossed the limit of all time. The reason of the hartal was to establish a new form of government i.e. caretaker government and to hold the general election under this government. After an enduring period of hartal and all other forms of protests, the caretaker government was incorporated in the constitution. After AL came to power, BNP again appeared with the same appearance of hartal and other forms of agitation. The power was shifted twice between the parties and hartal was established as a most favorite tool of showing agitations against the government.
However, practically, hartal is no more a favorite tool of agitation to the people. It has become an outdated form even in our country where there has not been any other form of protests against the government or to oust the government.
In our country, though hartal has become a democratic way of protest, but it has gained much unpopularity at least very recently. Therefore, it is now an unpopular-democratic way of protest against the government. Once it was popular and with the passage of time, it is now ostracized by the citizenry of the country.
In other countries of the world, it was not favorite at all for any sort of agitation against the government, except in India, Nepal and very few other countries. But does it mean that there is no protest in other countries? Is the governments of other counties are running the country with every success where there is no discontent amongst the people against the government? Probably the case is not so as we deem.
But the popular way of agitation is the way which is not destructive for the country and not detrimental to the wellbeing of the state. For doing so, they organize peaceful procession, demonstration, debate, and showdown and so other form which reflect the intention of the people. And, very reasonably, those are enough for the government to realize the public demands. Depending on the gravity of the agitation, the true democratic government steps down and transfer the power to the people. Though, it not everywhere in the world, but this is prevailing scenario of the world’s democracies. However, we have some examples of middle-eastern countries where the most unfortunate incidents took place in the event of transfer of power.
But we may raise the question about the existence of democracy in those countries as well.
Here, both the opposition and the party in power need to realize the public perception on hartal. But very regrettably both of our major political parties lag behind this perception and hence many things both from the government and the opposition are imposed on the people, on the country.
The reality is that, hartal is no more being observed as we have seen earlier. The reason is rooted in to the life and livelihood of the people. Hence it has gone obsolete and is of no use for the people. But does it mean that people are not aware of what the government is doing? Is the popularity of the government has not been blemished? Has opposition lost its popularity or not able to gain popularity?
Whatever the answers of those questions are, they are unquestionably not related to the popularity of hartal, let alone the impact of hartal on our economy and wellbeing.
It is high time for all the political parties of our country to search for more democratic alternative to hartal.
We have parliament to discuss all the issues within the scope of the constitution. However, other peaceful form of agitation is also a allowable in democracy if those are not detrimental and destructive to the country. But we gain nothing from hartal except loss of lives, property and economy at large. Both the government and the opposition should realize that very reality of the situation and providence of hartal. So fast, so good.
EAP
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