BY ALI SUKHANVER
Sometimes memories prove a gigantic hurdle in our way to progress particularly when they are nightmare-like bitterly unpleasant and horribly painful; but for a brighter future and a successful present, it is always advisable to get rid of all such pinching memories. But unfortunately there are some people who love to remain in the darkness of their past; Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh is also one of such personalities. With the passage of time, instead of getting weaker, her decades old enmity with Pakistan is getting stronger day by day. She is always busy in doing the things which could cause a serious damage to the socio-political future of Bangladesh. Sheikh Hasina has badly failed in coming up to the expectations of her people because she never gets ample time to pay attention towards the problems the people of Bangladesh have to face everyday. Unemployment has become a grave threat to the Bangladesh society. According to a recent report published in various newspapers of Bangladesh, the number of the unemployed in Bangladesh is at present somewhere around 30 million. The way the rate of unemployment is increasing, it is feared that this alarming rate of unemployment would reach some 60 million by 2015. Every year some 2.7 million young persons are becoming eligible for jobs but only about 0.7 million of them get opportunities of getting employed. This situation of unemployment and joblessness is generating a feeling of fear, depression and disappointment among the youth of Bangladesh.
World renowned analyst on Bangladesh affairs S.M.Raisul Islam says in his recent article, Unemployment in Bangladesh, ‘High number of unemployed members of the country is one of the prime reasons of poverty in Bangladesh. These workers are either jobless or underpaid. Population below poverty line 36.3% is a massive number to cope with a nation with a population of 142.3 million. As poverty is on the rise and the government is always under debt, there seems no possibility of new jobs. So the situation is getting bad to worse by time. Unemployed members of the society are drawing to crimes to earn living. When a man finds no means to feed himself, in desperation he moves to illegal way to earn.’ This is the real scenario of Bangladesh today but Sheikh Hasina and her political party Awami League is blind to this situation. Instead of doing efforts and struggle for the peace and prosperity of her nation, Sheikh Hasina is wasting her time in settling old scores with Pakistan. Most of the analysts are of the opinion that she is doing all this just to please her ‘god-fathers’ in India. She is trying to remain alive in Indian politics by giving derogatory and insulting remarks against Pakistan and its Armed Forces. From the distribution of Bangladesh Liberation War Honour Awards to the judicial killing of Mullah Qadir, all her actions speak loud of her malice against Pakistan. Sheikh Hasina could have been more popular and politically strong if she had concentrated upon the socio-economic problems of her own people instead of targeting Pakistan and blaming all those who had been opposing the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. Her old animosity for Pakistan has compelled her to drag Mrs. Khaleda Zia into a dirty ditch of blame-conspiracy.
During the last month in her parliamentary address Sheikh Hasina openly blamed that in the past, Mrs. Khaleda Zia, her son Tarique Rahman and some BNP leaders had been working on the agenda of Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency ISI by helping out the separatist movement in seven Indian states. They provided the separatists not only arms and ammunitions but all possible logistic support also. Sheikh Hasina said that investigation is in process and the culprits involved in this conspiracy would have to pay for their sin. The long and short of this story is that a stage is being prepared for another judicial murder in Bangladesh. A few months back , it was Abdul Qadir Mullah of Jamaat-e-Islami who was punished for his so-called crime of creating hurdles in the way of creation of Bangladesh and now it is Mrs. Khaleda Zia who is going to be fixed and punished for the same crime; the crime is ‘love for Pakistan.’ It is something very much insulting for an opposition leader of national stature to be blamed of being in connection with the intelligence agency of a neighbouring country. Moreover Mrs. Khaleda Zia is not a commoner; she is a very popular political leader and had been the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and has a lot of voters and supporters among the people of Bangladesh. Just to satisfy her hatred against Pakistan, Sheikh Hasina must not have blamed Mrs. Khaleda Zia and her son for working for the ISI. This non-sense behaviour of Sheikh Hasina would do no good to the already in-trouble people of Bangladesh.