The headmasters humiliation is appalling
It is always expected
that a lawmaker would act in a mature and sane manner. But surely the case here was far from it
The Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid is right in condemning the recent public humiliation of a school headmaster in Narayanganj in presence of an MP. He categorically said that action would be taken regarding the matter after an inquiry. It is quite reassuring that the authorities have taken the unfortunate teacher shaming incident very seriously.
What Shyamal Kanti Bhakta, the headmaster of Piyar Sattar Latif High School, in Bandar upazila on Friday, had to go through is unthinkable in this day and age. It is not clear whether he made blasphemous comments or not hearsays cannot act as evidence. For arguments sake, even if we accept that the headmaster made some offensive remarks, nobodythat includes MPs and other public representativescan appoint himself or herself as a judge and order punishment. Bangladesh is a republic and in a republic the rule of the law is sacrosanct.
Here even the people accused of the most heinous crimes against humanity during the 1971 war of liberation were given the opportunity to defend themselves. In this case, MP Selim Osman, instead of trying to protect a citizen and diffuse a volatile situation, joined the bandwagon of unruly elements and actually supported them.
There are provisions in the statute books regarding how to deal with people who make statements that hurt religious feelings or foment communal unrest. If anyone was offended by the alleged statements made by Bhakta, they could easily have taken the matter to the court and the legal system handled the issue from then onwards. Ideally the MP should have facilitated the process.
While deplorable one can understand excitable young people behaving in a wild manner. However, it is always expected that a lawmaker would act in a mature and sane manner. But surely the case here was far from it. Indeed leaders at the lower rung may get encouraged by such behaviour to indulge in similar or even more despicable acts.
We have observed this type of arbitrary punishment being meted out during autocratic regimes. In a democratic polity such disgraceful behaviour, particularly from public representatives, can never be tolerated. Now, the authorities must do something about the disturbing fact that no one can accuse anybody of insulting religion to settle personal scores. Safeguards against this kind of harassment exploiting the religious sentiment of the common people should be put in place.
It is our expectation that a teacher, or any citizen of this country for that matter, will not face such degrading humiliation in future.
