A small country mostly so homogeneous could not perhaps be so divisive as it looks now. It is all because of the rise of extreme intolerance within society. At a time when the country was supposed to get united on issues concerning the national well-being, the crack is widening. So visceral is the antagonism between and among factions of communities that it is not only wreaking havoc with social harmony and humanitarianism which once was this people's plus point but also with the minimum basic common sense.
When people lose understanding of and respect for fellow human beings, the fangs and claws of the animal in the guise of civilization get bared unrestrainedly. It is also preceded by degeneration of taste and vulgar exhibitionism in all possible forms. Unaware people stoop so low that it becomes a national shame. Thus rationality and logic become the number one casualty in the first place.
One of the worst examples of this is perhaps the act of insanity/sabotage and vulgarity that has spoiled the euphoria of the nation over the opening of the Padma Bridge to traffic. What can prompt a young man, who has reportedly completed his higher study recently, to remove nuts and bolts from the bridge's railing on the very inaugural day is beyond any sane person's imagination. What was he actually up to prove by the mindless act? Was it that it was a bridge so fragile, the nuts and bolts came off with the slightest effort when the work has been barely completed? Whether he tried to maintain that credit goes to him for detecting this flaw so early or he tried to prove that the construction, by extension, of the bridge is of low quality and therefore it will not sustain and be risky is yet to be known.
Questioning by the intelligence branch might reveal what his real motive behind the act was. That he had accomplices in the act is understandable. After all, the video clip had to be framed by someone else. There is no way of squarely blaming the man who took a few nuts and bolts off. The man behind the camera has been caught but the possibility of members of a gang involved in hatching a conspiracy behind this act cannot be ruled out. Maybe, evil minds got together to demonstrate an antithesis of national jubilation this way.
While this act has drawn as much public attention as it demands, the other act is less discussed perhaps because of the vulgarity and ignominy involved. It is the urination by a man on the bridge also on the very first day of the bridge's opening to traffic. Minimum modesty demands that no person does this demeaning oriental act in public. No argument can be entertained in favour of the urgency of responding to the call of nature right on the bridge. The person did it deliberately perhaps out of what can be discerned as visceral loathing he has nurtured in this dark bosom.
In a country where poisonous hearts prompt fathers (as reported in a handful of cases) on their own or with accomplices kill their sons and daughters to exact revenge on opponents by implicating the latter in the murder, such acts only expose the depth of blind rage and hatred within the soul. When the marvellous achievement has been extolled by almost all both at home and abroad, there are a few who were out to undermine the feat. Distorted values, aberration of taste and senseless antagonism have led them to give an account of their vile, vindictive, vicious and vulgar mentality.
The apprehension is that the swelling of the rank of this uncultured, intolerant and aggressive section of people is widening the chasm in social fabric. It does not augur well for society. Let the culturally advanced and enlightened people come forward to launch a social campaign against the retrogressive trends now leaving society confused, dazed, detracted and degenerated.
nilratanhalder2000@yahoo.com