I’ve been tied up in job interviews the last few days, and have thus been unable to comment on the recent rioting in Dhaka and elsewhere. Sajid, I assume, has been unable to get on the internet. 

We are at a critical point, no doubt, in the current State of Emergency. I have hardly been able to digest what has been happening. Like many in the Bengali blogosphere (including Asif S bhai at Drishtipat, whose posts, updates and links in the last few days have been excellent) I have mixed feelings about the violence, but I can see where it’s coming from. I hope to have a few substantive posts on this over the course of the next few days as things (and my life) hopefully settle down, but for now, broadly, here are a few things I think I think, that I hope to flesh out as well over the next few days:

 * It’s been clear for a while that the SOE government does not have a systematic plan about what it wants to do and what the underlying principles (principles - not platitudes) that drive it. Given its largely directionless existence, the SOE government has had to resort repeatedly to political theatre as crutches. This strategy has not been unsuccessful - but such theatre can  divert from the underlying lack of direction for only so long…

* It’s been clear that the SOE government has been losing control of things in the last weeks - and with it, its legitimacy in the eyes of many: a badly run relief effort, inflation, setbacks in the courts. And given that it’s spent a lot of its reservoir of political and moral capital that it should have held on to on political theatre and on things largely meaningless in the long run (like shutting down jute mills, and breaking buildings and slums in the middle of flooding season.)

* The rhetoric and haphazard attempts of the government to address its problems were increasingly smacking of desperation and disorder for some time, and this was clear in the fact tht they were increasingly ludicrous and unworkable (eg. attempting to force banks to limit interest rates charged to food importers) I am not on the ground, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the desperation could be smelt in the air by many.

* And desperation usually comes with someone snapping, like some idiots beating up Dhaka University students. The lesson to the army should be clear - if you can’t keep discipline over your own soldiers, how the hell do you plan on “disciplining” the entire populace? Get out of the business of centrally trying to establish your vision of order through brute force, intimidation and censorship.

* Except all indications are that this is not the lesson that the SOE government is learning. Instead, internet is down, the press is muzzled, and the CA goes on TV talking about “evildoers”.

* I shudder to think of what will happen if the SOE government packs up and just leaves. May be this makes me a reactionary.  I don’t want a return to pre-January 11. And I definitely don’t want mobocracy.

* But I also don’t want a return to pre-August 22. My fear is that the SOE government will try to sweep away the unrest like dirt on the ground. What they need to be doing is sweeping away cobwebs of the mind.