Bangladesh: Political parties, society must rise against signs of police state
THE High Court in hearing a contempt of court proceedings on Monday against the superintendent of police of Kushtia, whom the court summoned on January 20 on its own after taking the cognisance of a newspaper report that a judge filed a complaint against the police official for misdemeanour, has rightly asked the police not to establish a police state. The police official on January 16 misbehaved with a judicial magistrate, who entered a polling centre at Bheramara Pilot Model High School on having received complaints of irregularities. The police official, along with an assistant superintendent of police and other personnel, misbehaved with the magistrate, even after he had introduced himself, asked who he was and who sent him there, called him names and pushed him out of the centre, as a closed-circuit television camera footage shows, by grabbing him by the neck. The court in the ruling it issued earlier asked the police official to explain why contempt proceedings would not be drawn against him. The magistrate recently sought redress from the Supreme Court, the Election Commission, the home affairs ministry and the inspector general of police and punitive action against the police official for the breach of the Local Government Election Rules, 2010.
While the court has asked the police not to establish a police state, all signs of a police state, with the authorities using the police to maintain political power riding on harsh means of social control, appear to have already reared their head all around. Even on Monday, the police foiled a Left Democratic Alliance procession, marching from Purana Paltan towards the health ministry, seeking free COVID-19 vaccine doses for all and an end to the commercialisation of the vaccine. Although the government brings in a large quantity of vaccine doses for free inoculation, a private entity is reported to have been allowed to import the vaccine and sell the doses for a much higher price. Individuals or entities should have the right to disagree on such a move and to express their dissent, but there is no reason for the police, the government for that matter, to stop them from peacefully doing so. In October 2020, the police attacked a procession marching towards the Prime Minister’s Office demanding an end to rape and violence against women and left five of the marchers injured. The police in August 2020 attacked a human chain that demanded the release of a student, arrested after the death of a former army major in police firing on July 31, in Barguna.
There are numerous such incidents where the police have showed their high-handedness or even used brute force to muzzle dissenting voice and to stop opposition that does not only endanger society but also shrinks democratic space. While it is expected that the court would take note of all such incidents and attitudes, the ruling party, parties in the opposition camp and society, on the whole, have some soul-searching to do and rise up to the occasion to snub the ugly head that could turn the country into a police state.
Courtesy: New Age
