The word ‘dalal’ is a useful word in Bangla. I’ve not come across an exact equivalent in English. They combine the qualities and some of the functionalities of a lobbyist and a shameless sycophant all rolled into one.

You get them in all shapes and forms and in all fields, from politics to bureaucracy, amid intellectuals and in the media. If you need to get something done in a corrupt government office, the first person you contact is a dalal. And so, unseemly though the mechanism is and despite the hierarchy among dalals, the system works.

Politics becomes a bit difficult as that is where the inconsistencies show up. Balanced discussions suddenly become partisan, often to the extent that they lose all sense of perspective and turn into, essentially petty dalals, pretty much mimicking the party line no matter how ridiculous it sounds.

They appear as “experts” on TV, as political analysts, sometimes as representatives of civil society or even ordinary people. Parroting the government propaganda, they spew out the spin and the vitriol. They too must be desperate.

Knowing the sentiment on the streets, to lie so brazenly must take courage. Or perhaps, having sold their soul to the devil, they are prepared for the hell that must follow.

The standard practice that the government has adopted towards anyone who questions government policy is to label them as “anti-liberation” and ‘terrorist’. This is deeply insulting to people who are committed to egalitarianism, social justice and democracy which had been the underlying principles behind the war of liberation of Bangladesh.

It is precisely because the current government has strayed so far away from those principles, that the students questioned the regime. For the government to turn around and accuse the protestors of being “traitors” hurts to the core.

It was the PM’s comments that the protestors were “razakars” (collaborators of the Pakistani army), that had enraged them. The state minister for information calling Abu Sayeed, the heroic protester who was killed by the police, of being a ‘junkie’ because he was brave enough to be defiant, points to the depth to which the regime has sunk.

Only a party bereft of all values can be so insulting to a young man, a shahid (martyr), who gave his life defending the rights of his fellow students. Sayeed’s working class parents have lost their loving son. His mother’s wail was directed at the PM.

“So okay, you wouldn’t give my son a job, but why did you have to kill him?” I suppose she might be asking the minister, “OK you killed my son, but why did you have to defile him?”

So faced with student deaths, we have a PM who calls them “razakars” and an information minister who calls them ‘junkies’.

This is the sensitivity they have towards the public, the values they represent. The PM wanted to know who the instigators of the violence were. She should point to the mirror and to her fellow cabinet members. The sophisticated dalals. Her gangster cadre and police were merely foot soldiers fanning the flames.

The students had been on a peaceful protest, making, by the government’s own admission, reasonable demands which they themselves agreed with. The gazette the government hurriedly passed through could have been done in 2018.

The verdict issued by the Supreme Court on July 21 could have been given before the violence began. The government could have admitted its mistake and promised to make amends. Instead, the PM made the callous faux pas. Unleashing armed goons backed by the police defies all logic.

“We have absolute trust and confidence in you and will do the needful,” media talking heads say glibly. “We want you as PM for life,” businessmen dalals coo. Basking in the obsequious culture, she smiles.

The long convoy of APCs in Dhanmondi and the helicopter flying in between buildings are designed to instil fear. The side wall of the helicopter was completely removed: It was battle-ready. Who were they fighting?

Having lost both the ethical and the intellectual battle, muscle is the government’s only weapon left. Terrorising the public, their only defence. The security forces will protect the citizens, says the home minister. The citizens are the ones the security forces are terrorising.

-- The writer is a photographer, teacher and founder, Chobi Mela International Festival of Photography