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Politicians and a former bureaucrat at a discussion meeting questioned the government’s sincerity for holding dialogues with political parties and expressed their doubts about
   any positive outcome from
   such parleys, even if they take place.
   Most of the panellists at the Bangladesh Sanglap organised by BBC Bangla service in Dhaka Saturday were appalled by the government’s poor performance in tackling economic and political crises.
   BNP leader Rizvi Ahmed said the government was not sincere at all to hold talks with political parties.
   ‘I think the dialogues might end up in a farce. What is the goal of the dialogues?
   Is it for resolving the crisis or anything else?’ said former
   police chief ASM Shahjahan, also an ex-adviser to caretaker government.
   ‘They are not sincere to hold the elections too and it seems that they intend to form a selected parliament,’ he said.
   Referring to pre-dialogue parleys initiated by a panel of advisers, Awami League leader Faruk Khan said there was no coordination in the government. ‘Five advisers met us and assured that they would consider inclusion of the issue of releasing two top leaders in the dialogue agenda, but another adviser next day said no talks would be held on their release.’
   ‘Like their performance in all other sectors, the government is doing the same regarding dialogues with political parties,’ he added.
   Rights activist Sara Hossain found lack of coordination among the political parties
   and the government to
   make the dialogue initiatives successful.
   Responding to a question from the audience whether the government’s move for reforms within parties was aimed at rectifying the parties or splitting them, Rizvi Ahmed said the government was nobody to speak about the parties’ internal issues. ‘Of course reforms
   are needed and it is a continuous process. But I am not
   ready to do so at the words from some public servant,’ he said.
   Faruk Khan accused the
   government of creating obstacle to internal reforms of political parties. ‘There is no doubt
   that people want to see
   some changes in many sectors. Awami League has set plans for it, but we cannot go to the people for their suggestions due to the ban on political activities,’ he said.
   ASM Shahjahan said initially it seemed that the government really wanted to bring reforms and now it looked something else. ‘The same laws are being applied in separate forms depending on whom they target. We know there are people behind the scene but unable to name them.’
   All the panellists protested against the doubling of price of compressed natural gas at a time when the people were hard-pressed by rocketing prices of food and other essentials.
   Rizvi Ahmed and Faruq
   Khan said increase of gas price was unavoidable, but it could have been done gradually within the level of people’s tolerance.