THE Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia left for London for advanced medical treatment at night on January 7. Khaleda Zia left her house at Gulshan about 8:15pm for the airport via the elevated expressway to fly at 10:00pm in an air ambulance, which the emir of Qatar provided, for London but could not reach the airport until 10:20pm. The delay resulted from a severe congestion on the Airport Road as thousands of leaders and activists of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party stood along the road to see the party鈥檚 chairperson off. The crowding of the road that began in the afternoon, with most of the people having gathered to greet Khaleda Zia coming onto the road also created congestion on the roads in adjacent areas such as Banani and Khilket. As all this happened, people, on their way back home after office hours, faced hours of intense congestion. The Airport Road and other roads passing nearby plunged into a severe traffic snarl-up. It was, perhaps, natural for the party leaders and activists to gather to see off Khaleda Zia in such a public appearance after her acquittal from a case in which she was sentenced to imprisonment for 17 years in 2018.
In March 2020, she was allowed to stay at home initially for six months on condition that she would not travel abroad. The six-month suspension of her imprisonment was later extended six consecutive times and after 2020 she was conditionally freed for medical treatment until August 2024, when the political changeover that a mass uprising ushered in took place. She was acquitted in the cases in late November 2024. All this having happened, the leaders and activists having been passionate about and eager to see the party鈥檚 chairperson, when she was going abroad for advanced treatment, is nothing unusual. But it appears consequent on the leaders of the party to decide how the expression of the passion and eagerness of the party leaders and activists would manifest. And, it is certainly not by crowding the road to create a severe congestion that put city dwellers in trouble spanning a few hours. Ranking leaders of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party are reported to have issued special instructions earlier for its leaders and activists to stop causing public inconvenience and sufferings when they would gather to see her off. But the instructions miserably failed to work and both traffic and pedestrians had been stuck in congestions for hours. The situation can easily be likened to the warnings that ranking BNP leaders have sounded against extortion on the road and at markets, yet extortion by BNP leaders and activists has, as media have often reported, continued almost apace.
This is imperative for ranking BNP leaders to decide how their leaders and activists would express their emotion, passion and eagerness without causing inconvenience to ordinary people. Politicians of all colours, in fact, should reach a consensus on this and learn how not to inconvenience people by way of their action to afford ordinary people some order and relief.