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The literature page of New Age is like a breath of fresh air for me. A respite from all the harsh news we read about in the news sections. So it’s not surprising that I look forward to it with keen anticipation. I love the Literary Journeys section as Niaz Zaman is so varied in selecting fellow travellers, from Shelley to Mirza It’esamuddin and many in between.
   I have one suggestion to make, however. Is it not possible to print the original Roman Bangla version of the poems published in their English translations. If both were printed alongside each other one would be able to feel both the sound of the original, and to those who don’t understand Bangla, the meaning in their translated versions. When reading Alauddin Azad’s poem, I really wanted to go over the Bangla version ‘Sritir Minar’ but of course it was too much trouble to dig out the original book from dusty bookshelves, if in fact I still have a copy, which I doubt. Reading Nabanita Deb Sen’s translated poem today made me want to hear the sound of the original poem.
   This reader will be highly obliged if you published the original, in Bangla which I can read, or in Roman Bangla which will cover the readers who can’t.
   Fahima Ahmed
   Agargaon, Dhaka

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, our political culture today is of violence and hartals. The opposition political parties have no respect for each other and quite often even do not see eye to eye on common national issues. It is regrettable, but such is the political reality in Bangladesh.
   To avoid this situation we could have a constitutional provision for a national government whenever any single political party does not command the necessary electoral majority. For this, the constitution needs to be amended by incorporating the following provisions.
   The government will be headed by the representative of the party having the highest number of MPs. The deputy head of Government would be from the party having the next number of elected MPs.
   The ministry will have party representation based on the percentages of elected MPs, of different parties but limited only to those parties who secure at least five percent of the total number of seats being contested in a general election. Women MPs if nominated should also be on the same basis.
   Under no circumstances should there be more than ten minister with a maximum of ten more state minister; the total cabinet not to exceed twenty incumbents in total. Retirement or death of any incumbent will be replaced by another of the same party. All the twenty posts shall be distributed in line with para b)
   Distribution of Ministries could be on the basis of the following order of priorities for succeeding parties based on their representation as per b) starting from the highest and lower down party wise.
   i) Home ii) Finance & Planning iii) Foreign Affairs iv) Trade & Commerce v) Local Self Government vi) Transport & Communication vii) Information and Broad casting viii) Health & Family Planning ix) Education x) Development.
   No minister shall hold more than one portfolio of the above ten departments. Other related departments beyond the above if any can be given to the state minister, or the minister as decided by the cabinet.
   As an ordinary citizen I would request our public representatives to seriously look into this matter and have the constitution amended along these lines under a proper legal draft and framework. May be this could bring some positive change to our political culture, and be beneficial for the country.
   SA Mansoor
   Gulshan, Dhaka

The Indian decision not to participate in the 13th SAARC summit scheduled to be held in Dhaka on 6 and 7 February is unfortunate, ‘unwarranted and unexpected’ because all other six-members were willing to participate in the summit meeting and they expressed their satisfaction with the blanket security arrangement here in Dhaka.
   Actually, India’s security concern in Bangladesh is nothing new. From some days back India has been making the false accusation that Bangladesh is nurturing fundamentalists by patronising madrasa education and training militants in different parts of the country. Bangladesh has vehemently denied the charge and urged India to give exact location of the terrorist camps but India failed to give such information. On the contrary, Bangladesh gave India specific information regarding training camps there in India where terrorists are trained to create unrest in the neighbouring countries especially in Bangladesh.
   But India did not take any action. Bomb attacks are nothing new in the subcontinent. In fact India is a country where almost daily the incident of bomb attacks occur but the Indian government is always ready to point to the neighbouring country as ineffective in stopping such attacks.
   In this critical juncture of the country every party should put their heads together to identify those black elements who want to destabilise our country by carrying out bomb attacks and killing our national leaders. Otherwise, the third party, our enemy, will continue to poke their nose in our internal affairs and weaken us as a nation by creating turmoil in our beloved country.
   Tinku
   Lalpur, Natore

Does it not intrigue your mind that though some suspects have been detained for the Habiganj attack, but there is no clue to the 21st August incident? It seems that the people of Bangladesh are being hoodwinked and most, if not all, are falling for the deception. I hope that the actual criminals are punished.
   Also, the ruling government is 100 per cent responsible for the subsequent political turmoil that has been prevailing in the country because of the government’s inability (rather encouraging) to stop reoccurrence of the assassination attempts on opposition political leaders. If these incidents are not protested and contained, these killings would go on unabated. 
   Although the killing of the opposition leaders might not seem a big deal to many of the hardcore supporters of the ruling party, one should realise that it would lead to an essentially one-party country, which was the deciding factor to bring down the regime of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.  Do we really want to go back to that kind of anarchy again? I really wonder.
   Imran Khan
   University of California San Diego, USA