May 16, 1976. A well-known day in the political arena of Bangladesh. Almost 49 years ago today, the day of the long march towards Farakka gets more attention every year when the month of May comes around. As the hostile heat wave continues across the country this year, every living being has started feeling hatred.

The urban affluent tries to find some comfort in the air-conditioned enclosure. But urban toilers and low-income people in rural areas across the country have suffered more this year. Added to this is the scarcity of irrigation water in the arable land of the farmers. Those who are deprived of Uniform River water facilities in riverine Bangladesh Mawlana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani started the movement for their welfare.

Mawlana Bhasani was not a statesman. He was the voice of the working people, an oppressed public leader. It was under his leadership that the historic march known as the 'Farakka Long March' was organized to demand the rights of people deprived of the water facilities of the Padma River.

The people of Bangladesh have been victims of India's water invasion since ages. India continues to build dams on the international river Ganges causing severe damage to the people of the two upstream countries. But because of this, Bangladesh, the country of downstream, is facing more threats.

Mawlana Bhasani has been vocal in his opposition to the construction of the dam at Farakka since its inception. In 1952, when India began to implement the plan to build a bank in Farakka, the then Pakistan government protested. India then said it was in the exploratory phase. In 1960, India and Pakistan met on this issue. However, in 1961-62, India secretly started construction of the dam. The country supporting this work was Soviet Union and the cost is estimated at one billion dollars. The 2,240 meter long Farakka Barrage, connecting Maldah and Murshidabad districts of India and West Bengal, was completed in 1970 without the digging of feeder canals and awaiting commissioning.

After the independence of Bangladesh, India completed the construction of the Farakka Link Canal quickly. In 1974, Farakka Barrage was announced as an experimental project. After that, the Farakka Barrage was launched experimentally for 41 days from 21 April. Which is no longer closed, today almost 48 years later, it remains experimentally operational.

Mawlana Bhasani raised public opinion against the unilateral withdrawal of water from the Padma since the Farakka Barrage was commissioned.

His movement was to prevent adverse effects on Bangladesh's agriculture, biodiversity and environment. When India opens all the gates every year without being able to block the excess water of the monsoon through the Farakka Barrage, the lifeline of Bangladesh Padma River in the monsoons, floods and bursts occur. Mawlana Bhasani was moved by the plight of the poor people who had lost their livelihood due to the parched river, even though the gates had been closed during the drought.

In this situation, on April 18, 1976, Maulana Bhasani wrote a letter to the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi. He described the adverse reaction of Farakka and informed about the 'Farrakka Long March' program. Indira Gandhi, in response to that letter, said, "It is hard to think that someone who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with us against colonial rule and later saw with equal sympathy the pain of Bangladesh's liberation war and sacrifice, has misunderstood us so much and even questioned our sincerity." (BBC Bangla News May 17, 2015).

Mawlana Bhasani's reply to this was, “Your letter of May 4 is a repetition of the official commentary on Farakka. There was no such expectation from the daughter of illustrious ancestor Motilal Nehru and daughter of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.”... “I request you to visit the northern districts of Bangladesh to see the reflection of the real picture... The problem needs a comprehensive solution. It should be based on proper distribution of flow throughout the year and not just limited to two months of the season.”

Even if time passes like this, the real problem remains hidden. The response of which is reflected in the implementation of the Long March program in the direction of Farakka on 16 May 1976. This long march gave birth to an important event in Mawlana Bhasani's long struggling life.

The route of this long march program was to start a long march from Madrasa Maidan in Rajshahi, a divisional city of Padma bank, at 10 am on May 16, passing through Premtoli, crossing Chapainawabganj, crossing Kansat border and ending at Farakka Barrage area point in Murshidabad district of India. He started this journey by addressing a large public meeting at Madrasa Maidan in Rajshahi.

At that time, the 90-year-old veteran leader Maulana Bhasani was very ill. Yet he stood in front of the microphone with two men on his shoulders and delivered a thunderous speech. It was considered a surprising event by the participants of the Long March.

Mawlana Bhasani's statement was, "Just as a child has a right to mother's milk, you have a right to water." Wake up, stand up against the usurpation of your nature-given rights.” He termed the interference with this natural right of man as extremely unjust and oppressive and "raised his hand to the sky and said, Allah will surely guide us to salvation."

Accepting many hardships in his old age, he started this long march with millions of people. Along with the long marchers, he announced to go to Farakka Point inside India, but before crossing the border, he did not follow the advice of the government. He reached the Kansat land port bordering India and announced the end of the long march.

Almost twenty years after this, in 1996, the thirty-year Ganga Water sharing Agreement without any guarantee clause was concluded between the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, and the then Prime Minister of India, HD Deve Gowda which is still in force. Even after 27 years of the Ganges Treaty, there are many debates about what Bangladesh got. On the one hand, the life of Farakka Barrage has passed 50 years. On the other hand, the Ganges Agreement with Bangladesh is about to expire. It is not yet known how the contract will be renewed.

As the expired Farakka Barrage has emerged as a cause of loss for both countries upstream, there is speculation among concerned experts whether it will be demolished or not. Due to Farakka, water logging, landslides, floods, river bursts etc. in its upstream India are seen in the news headlines. Residents of Farakka spend their days in fear of any major disaster.

On the other hand, the people of 16 districts of the northern part of Bangladesh are suffering directly due to the lack of sufficient water in the agreement reached as a result of the unilateral withdrawal of water in Farakka. Padma river in Bangladesh has premature floods in monsoon, but Padma dries up before winter. The Padma, which was once a paradise, where large steamers used to travel between Dhaka and Kolkata, has now become a burden for boating.

With the closure of waterways due to lack of water, there has been a famine of all common fish including hilsa fish in Padma. In addition, fishermen, midshipmen, and naval workers have become unemployed due to the closure of river-based occupations. The branches and tributaries of the Padma have dried up and died. The verse of the famous poet Rabindranath Tagore's poem 'Paar hoye jai garu para hai garhi' - has now become an extreme truth for the Padma and its tributaries.

As a result of the adverse effects of the Farakka Barrage, the overall damage in Bangladesh is very high, which is often seen in the national and foreign media headlines from research reports presented in various seminars and conferences. Many researchers have obtained PhD degrees on the Farakka issue and have given various recommendations, but the Indian authorities ignore them. They are never bothered by the results of the research.

Even hundreds of meetings-seniors on the issue of Teesta river water distribution are still pending even after the agreement was reached. For ages, the deprived people of Bangladesh have been lamenting India's lack of sincerity in sharing the water of international rivers and being a bastion country for the food alone policy. Even as a result of Bangladesh's considerable efforts, Bangladesh is showing an extreme failure politically on the average of various geopolitical calculations.

Lack of sincerity, broken promises, vacillation on agreements and frequent cheating have left Bangladesh largely helpless to deal with its water problems through internal efforts. However, observing the current reality of river water sharing, one cannot deny that the need for the Farakka Long March is now over. Rather, Mawlana Bhasani's thunderous speech of Farakka Longmarch has not lost its strength even today.

Even today, the path of Bangladesh, the strong conviction to move forward, has not been lost. Despite being deprived of many tricks and deceptions, with the foresight, prayers and inspiration of morally strong elders like Mawlana Bhasani, our dear motherland Bangladesh will move forward far ahead in the near future.

Author: Professor of Department of Social Work and former Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences, Rajshahi University.

Polling for the first phase of the Sixth Upazila Parishad elections has ended. Barring a few isolated incidents, the election was fairly peaceful. There were fake votes in the election, the influence of many in the ruling party was true, but there were no major untoward incidents in the polls. In this case, the Election Commission has reason to be satisfied. But the main cause of embarrassment is voter turnout. Despite many discussions, voters did not turn up as expected in this election.

Election Commissioner said on Thursday the next day of the polling. MD. Alamgir told reporters at the election building that 36.1 percent votes were cast in the first phase of the election. Electronic voting machine (EVM) voting was done in 22 upazilas and remaining 117 upazilas were done by ballot paper. The voting rate in EVM is 31.31 percent and 37.22 percent in ballot. Sonatala, Mirsarai and Kushtia Sadar upazilas got the least number of votes. Only 17 percent polled in those places. Khetlal upazila of Joypurhat district received the highest number of votes. 73.1 percent of the votes were cast there.

The highest voting area is in Khetlal Upazila of Joypurhat with a total of 95 thousand 191 voters. Out of this 64 thousand 730 voters exercise their right to vote. Municipal Awami League president Dulal Mia Sardar got 30 thousand 390 votes there. His closest rival Awami League leader Taiful Islam Talukder got 22 thousand 901 votes.

Among the low polling areas, Bogura’s Sonatala had 1 lakh 64 thousand 332 voters. Among them, 28 thousand 278 people voted. There, Upazila Awami League president Minhaduzzaman Liton won the chairmanship again by getting 20 thousand 483 votes. His closest rival Zakir Hossain got 7 thousand 345 votes. Minhaduzzaman Liton is the younger brother of Member of Parliament Sahadara Mannan. Not only had the brother of this Awami League MP won the election, his son Sakhawat Hossain Sajal won in another upazila of Sariakandi in the district.

Kushtia Sadar is another upazila with less votes. Here only 73 thousand 299 voters voted out of 4 lakh 20 thousand 833 voters. Kushtia Sadar Constituency Member of Parliament and Awami League Joint General Secretary Mahbub-ul Alam Hanif's cousin Ataur Rahman Ata was elected by getting 67 thousand 481 votes. His only rival Abu Ahad Al Mamun got 3 thousand 564 votes.

According to the data provided by the Election Commission (EC), another upazila with less votes is Mirsarai in Chattogram. In that upazila there are 3 lakh 72 thousand 257 voters, Enayet Hossain Nayan was elected as chairman by getting 33 thousand 70 votes. His nearest rival Sheikh Mohammad Ataur Rahman got 20 thousand 767 votes.

According to the Election Commission, the low turnout was due to the paddy harvesting season, rains, lack of popular candidates, people going home due to holidays in urban areas, and non-participation of major political parties. Although these are reasons, it is not enough to say that it is just an excuse. Is the Election Commission's explanation for the low vote count the real reason? Man has no control over rice harvesting season, rain and storm, but the rest depends on man. The way the EC is trying to posit storm as a reason is not at all in the main cause, because there was no mention of storm on Election Day. Even during the rice harvesting season, people voted earlier, election day is always a holiday, and people don't usually go to the village on this one-day holiday, especially the next day when there is no other holiday.

EC wants to say that there was a lack of popular candidates in the elections. How to accept it? Although the election was not held on the party symbol, the leaders of the ruling party participated in the election, and the current chairmen also participated. According to the EC, in the three upazilas which received the least number of votes, in at least two of the three upazilas, the close relatives of the two members of parliament of the ruling Awami League party have won. So does the EC want to say that the political parties are boycotting the election because their leaders are basically candidates to attract voters to the center?

EC says that one of the reasons for the lack of voters in the elections is the non-participation of the BNP. It is such an unpleasant fact that there is no way to deny it. Yes, it is not that all or most of the BNP leaders would have won if they contested the elections, but the impact of their boycotting the elections is far reaching. As BNP did not participate in the elections, none of the like-minded members of the party participated. Even none of the political parties that participated with Awami League in the 12th National Assembly elections did not participate in the elections.

Awami League did not give the party symbol in the elections to avoid making the conflict between the parties public; But where is the Jatiya Party, where are the 14-partner parties, where is the 'King's Party' that suddenly flourished in the past and participated in the parliamentary elections? Although the Jatiya Party is recognized as the main opposition party in the Jatiya Sangsad, it is easy to imagine that this party does not exist at the marginal level, if we look at the history of their participation in the local government elections. The party surviving at the mercy of the government has been proven repeatedly in the crisis of leaders and workers. The first phase of the recently concluded Upazila Parishad elections proved that once again.

In the first phase of upazila parishad elections, most of the candidates are from Awami League. Local government election but there is no voter turnout in the election. The voting rate this time is less than the voting rate of the last parliamentary elections. Does this not prove that Awami League activists and candidates are failing to attract voters? Is this failure but an abstract expression of distrust?

No matter how many excuses the Election Commission makes about rough weather including paddy harvesting season, storms, the actual vote from the announcement of the election schedule to the election day. The wind was blowing across the specific 139 upazilas? The reality is that it never seemed like the vote had come. It is important to find out why this apathy of people towards voting is taking a terrible form.

There is no reason to think that all those who did not go to vote are supporters of BNP. So many Awami League leaders and activists in the country, have they gone to vote? Voter turnout shows that they too have lost interest in elections. People did not go to vote mainly because of an idea or belief that 'what will happen by voting'.

Have spoken to many personally, and most have the same opinion. It is a threat to the continuity of the democratic process. As people are becoming apathetic to vote day by day, if the 'assassins of darkness' ever get closer to the center of power, the road to liberation from here will continue to get longer and longer. Elections were once one of our festivals. Discussions and criticisms about votes and candidates were everywhere, but now those days are largely gone.

People who are not voting should be returned to vote, they should be given a chance, and a field of equal status and equal opportunities should be built. The right to vote, the democratic right. This sense needs awakening. An environment of communication and trust is needed between the center and the periphery. If the atmosphere of trust does not return, people will continue to deviate from voting and democratic rights!

The world has woken up anew to the age-long brutality of Zionist Israel against the hapless citizens of Palestine, with Western aid and the astonishing silence of the Arab world. It would be wrong to say that this 'world' refers to the people of the world, mainly because of the unprecedented hellishness of recent times, which has angered a section of the world's students, youth and freedom-loving people, who are driven by their conscience. They are not borrowing techniques or any equations.

The remarkable thing is that the students and youth of Western countries, including the United States, who have given everything to humanity around the world, have come down on the streets to show solidarity with the oppressed Palestine in intense anger, ignoring the red eyes of their rulers. Even on US university campuses, there is intense tension. The country's law and order forces are leaving no stone unturned to use force and intimidation to stop the angry students. As a result, many students and even teachers are getting arrested.

According to international media reports, this manifestation of Palestinian solidarity in the United States is happening in various parts of the world including Europe. The students and youth of Bangladesh, who have historically been with the people of Palestine, have also taken to the streets for the last few days in favor of 'independent Palestine' and demanding an end to Israeli brutality. In continuation of several rallies in Dhaka University, a rally was held today on Thursday.

Born through a bloody nine-month liberation war, Bangladesh is no stranger to the bleakness of subjugation. Despite the various realities of political polarization including the distortion of the history of the liberation war, there is no shortage of love and solidarity for the oppressed people of Palestine in the minds of the people of Bangladesh. We notice that the current government and leaders of various levels of the ruling party have also taken a strong stand against brutality in Palestine. Although many people try to say that this position is for the opposition of the United States, we think that everyone should be united for the oppressed Palestine, regardless of the party. There should be no variation in taking a stand on this expression of solidarity in terms of domestic politics. Also, religious considerations should not play a role in expressing solidarity.

As a country that cherishes the heritage of freedom struggle, it should be our duty to take a stand for oppressed people in any part of the world. We heard the same sentiments of the liberating people echoed in the voice of the last British Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, at the midnight of 15th August, 1947, when India declared independence. That day he admitted unequivocally, ``Freedom Loving People Everywhere''.

But we are noticing the ambivalence of the political parties here in expressing the solidarity of independent Palestine in the polarization of internal politics. It is alleged that the desire of some parties in opposition to the government for the support of the Western powers is the reason for their strange silence on Palestine. While the Islamic parties have raised the bar on many internal issues with the guise of religious frenzy, their significant programs are not visible in the ongoing atrocities on Palestine. The assessment of political observers is that, although these parties and organizations are united in party and group interests, their position is unclear for the oppressed people.

On the other hand, we note with deep pain that the countries of the Middle East have continued to exhibit a surprising silence against the brutality of Palestine for centuries, despite the ongoing Israeli destruction, their strategic conservatism continues. Although they condemn Muslim solidarity, Western development and Israel, there is no strong action from their side. Countries continue to prioritize their own trade and security strategies.

Every day, hundreds of innocent Palestinian children, women-old people and even those under treatment are targeted by Israeli attacks, but the Arab world does not wake up. At a time when the West, including Israel, is reeling from Iran's active stance, if the Middle East countries had spoken the language of arms instead of mere condemnation, the scenario could have changed in a week. Analysts monitoring the situation in the Middle East say that if the Palestinian armed group Hamas had not put up a strong resistance against Israeli brutality, the Israeli prosperity and destruction would have spread much further.

Even if we take the call for US disarmament to have significance, it is clearly the result of the rise of Hamas and other pro-independence armed groups. Those who are confined to 'Palestinian solidarity' by tuning into various polarizations or by tactical protest-condemnation have no choice but to get out of it. Needless to say, strong global public opinion also has a definite value. Absolute solidarity for Palestine irrespective of all differences and religious identities is the need of the hour.

It was evening. I was walking to workplace on Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue. As I crossed the road at Banglamotor intersection, a young man sitting on a motorcycle called out, 'Brother, will you go?'

Unprepared and slightly annoyed, I replied, 'Did I ask you?'

The young man remained unresponsive, looking away with a sullen face. I stopped a little forward thinking that I think I gave him a lot of trouble. I thought, I should have said it like this. Returning to regret, I asked, 'Sorry', 'maybe you are not getting passengers for a long time?'

With great difficulty, the bike driver said that he had been standing for about one and a half hours, and could not find anyone to take him. After a long wait, if someone wants to go, there is a competition among the bikers standing with him. The passenger also takes that opportunity. Someone agrees to go for a lower fare, so the bikers ask the pedestrian if they see someone walking. The driver said that he could not get a job after passing his Master's degree from the National University, so he was forced to ride a bike. He said, 'It is not that there is no shame in calling someone like this, but nothing is greater than hunger and survival.'

I see bikers standing for a long time with dirty faces like this every day while coming to workplace. In other words, they are seen sitting unemployed like this all over the city of Dhaka. Recent data from various research institutes including Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) says that there are more than 10 lakh motorbikes in the capital city of Dhaka. It can be assumed that a large part of them are connected to various ride sharing apps and hit the road to transport passengers on hire. Even after connecting to the ride sharing app, most of the bikers now agree to go to the desired destination by negotiating with interested passengers on the way.

According to 2022 statistics, there are currently over 32 lakh registered motorcycles in the country. Even at different district and upazila levels of the country, the practice of passenger transportation on motorbikes has started long ago. While visiting the Sundarbans in 2010, I saw two or three people riding on a bike in Mongla. After reviewing, it has been found that a large part of the educated youth of the country, not getting the desired job or waiting to apply for a job, have started to transport passengers on this motorcycle for the need of livelihood. But when one of the people of this nation is seen doing something or gets news of any possibility, everyone gets excited about it. In this traditional custom, many more bikers than necessary have come to transport passengers. So even if you go down the road hoping for a living, you are not seeing any passengers, you are also failing to earn the desired income. A large part of the young manpower thus sinks into despair and often meets with road accidents. Sometimes they get involved in various social crimes.

Many policymakers do not want to take into account the impact on public life of the extreme rise in commodity prices. Many of them can be heard saying in the face of journalists, 'There is no shortage of goods in the market' or 'People's purchasing power has now increased' etc. But how difficult it is for that class to survive in the society who have acquired a kind of self-esteem by getting education, who are unable to express their helplessness even in extreme poverty, can be easily understood by looking at the face of the bike driver standing for the passenger for a long time. Nowadays, it is not difficult to imagine the anger and heat within the society due to the welfare of social media. We notice that the rising rich are living a classless and glittering life, and on the other hand, in extreme despair, the sadness of not being able to gather enough food for hunger at the end of the day or the manager's anger at not being able to pay a small amount of money for the mess at the end of the month.

We see many more young people in different professions who are not able to make a living by transporting passengers on bikes, whose situation is even worse. A few days ago, I saw the news in mainstream newspapers about the incident that went viral on social media - after buying big fish in Kaowran Bazaar, the fish intestines, fins and other discarded parts are also being sold for free. A class of people is buying it while covering their faces. According to published news, they are neither beggars nor scoundrels. Those who are buying the share of those discarded fish parts are educated unemployed people who are in dire straits. They cannot afford to buy fish at Tk. 700-Tk. 800 per kg.

At present, the so-called 'development-progress' cannot be simplified by seeing the country's unstructured structure and the huge prestige of some people. We can unequivocally say that this development has not eliminated overall socio-economic inequality. Just as this bright city is nothing but a disappointment to the educated young man standing for an hour and a half at Banglamotor junction, similarly to the farmer in a remote village who does not get a fair price for his crops, the gray life is all bleak.