The common folk of the country had been used to surviving by combating natural calamities in this Gangetic Delta for long. Nature's Elemental furies are scarce these days. The storms are now manmade – gruesome killings, bizarre molestation and murders, marauding and bloodletting over polls, onslaughts on the environment with mega thermal power plants and last, but not the least, the cyber theft of Bangladesh Bank reserve account with the US Federal Reserve Bank New York. Shocks one after another puzzle the nation
There have been longstanding protests by voice and road marches staged by greens and left political activists against the Rampal power project. Clashes
in the capitals streets and along long-march routes marked the Rampal movement
Prof. Sarwar Md. Saifullah Khaled
The common folk of the country had been used to surviving by combating natural calamities in this Gangetic Delta for long. Natures Elemental furies are scarce these days. The storms are now manmade gruesome killings, bizarre molestation and murders, marauding and bloodletting over polls, onslaughts on the environment with mega thermal power plants and last, but not the least, the cyber theft of Bangladesh Bank reserve account with the US Federal Reserve Bank New York.
In fact, the centre-point of the latest sequel is the trans-national cyber burglary of Bangladeshs reserves in the US Federal Reserve Bank New York in early February 2016. Unprecedented in mode and magnitude! As the sensitive matter still remained a riddle, variegated suspicions are being aired about it being a case of plunder with insider-complicity, not hacking of the account by cyber criminals alone. This is the latest orbiting around authorities alleged lapses in securing the national treasury. This axis is economic.
Such incidents are quickly followed by events by which even the best brain could be clouded with so many big-bang things happening in successive sequels. Another centre of trouble is Union Parishad (UP) election, a bloodletting political one of a unique nature. As if in a kaleidoscopic view came events of shocks and awes one after another, one trying to overshadow the other. In a horrible succession came the recurrence of assault on women alleged rape and murder of the college girl of Comilla, Sohagi Jahan Tonu, in the local cantonment area in March 2016.
In the meantime, rioting over UP polls shook different rural areas across the country. And the shooting down of four villagers amid protest by locals against coal-fired thermal plant at Gandamara in Chittagongs Banshkhali and the killing of Jagannath University student Nazim Uddin Samad took place back to back in April 2016. There have been longstanding protests by voice and road marches staged by greens and left political activists against the Rampal power project. Clashes in the capitals streets and along long-march routes marked the Rampal movement. And Gandamara grievances erupted into a bloody clash and police firing. Tonu tragedy, Banshkhali carnage and Nazim murder are among the latest chain of events.
College-girl Sohagi Jahan Tonus fate, which is perhaps worse than simply death, stands on top of the fresh spell of felonies. Entire country is shaken by the shock waves in quick succession. Campuses, streets and political arena got overheated with protests and strikes. In a latest protest move, a coalition of left-wing student organisations has called a half-day hartal across the country for April 25 unless the assailants of Tonu are arrested by then. While Tonu-murder protests were raging, in quick succession the killing of protesters against a coal-fired power plant at Gandamara in Chittagongs Banshkhali came as another shock.
As if in a follow-up strike, a terrible attack left Nazim dead in Dhakas street. Close by, two other triggers were pressed: one on government move to strike the final deal with an Indian company on a joint-venture project to build a massive power plant at Rampal near the Sundarbans, a World Heritage Site and the largest unbroken mangrove forest on earth, and another one is the musing over a hike in gas and power prices.
Apart from the volleys of angry protests by students, environmentalists, civil-society outfits and locals around the sites of mega projects, the latter of the aforesaid two angered also the political opposition-BNP. The party, still reeling from a setback over a violent political protest against what is termed flawed national elections of January 05, 2014, now threatened a vigorous movement if the government raised the fuel and power prices once again. Street protesters and TV talk-show discussants quip: people in authority in Bangladesh appear to be expert at riding the crest of tempests.
The spokesman of Ganojagoran Mancha told rallies at Shahbagh, the epicenter of protests of present times, When we carry on agitations against one misdeed, another is staged as if to cover up the former. People are puzzled.
Pacifists have a suggestion calling for a rethink on both the power-project sites and stopping the rot that creates serious crimes. About the coal-based thermal power projects one close by the mangrove forest Sundarban and another seafront in the vicinity of the Bay of Bengal and human habitation in Banshkhali there have been concerns about their ecological impacts. Experts say prior environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a must in case of modern-day development projects.
Local consultation is also a universal practice in undertaking projects in populous areas. That would have been a better option, experts said about the state ministers latest reported stance on relocation of the planned power plants. In the wake of a veritable vortex over Gandamara and Rampal plants, State Minister for Power and Energy indicated that both projects sites might be relocated. The frontrunners in the movement of the National Committee to Protect Power, Gas, Oil and Ports, feared Gandamara might turn out to be another Fulbaria. There was a bloodbath in Fulbaria amid fierce local protests against open-pit coalmining projects awarded to UK-based Asia Energy.
Both the turfs remained torrid. There was a softening of tone from some quarters on the corridors of power. But the mood might have taken a twist as has been indicated by the Prime Ministers energy adviser on April 10, 2016. Play-within-play forebodes no good. One sign is clear campuses are abuzz with protests and student movement arising out of the unrest is taking a turn for the one this land had witnessed in the pre-independence period. If the students eventually have to enforce the general strike that would foster a student-mass solidarity shown in the 1969 mass upsurge that paved the way for the liberation war in 1971. So the government should step forward carefully.
The writer is a retired Professor of Economics
