Govt trying to control people’s voice ahead of polls

DIGITAL SECURITY BILL

Politicians and right activists on Saturday said that the government passed the controversial Digital Security Bill to use it as a weapon for controlling people’s voice in the run up to the general election.

Addressing a discussion organised by Ganasanghati Andolan on the issue at Monir-Azad seminar room of Moni Singh-Farhad Smriti Trust in the capital they said that the ruling Awami League was desperate to cling to power at any cost.

Rights activist and Jahangirnagar University economics professor Anu Muhammad said that since the Digital Security Bill seeks to stop research work and new thinking what could be the justification of keeping the universities whose main function was research and working with innovative thinking.

He criticized the move of university teachers to attend a meeting with the prime minister after Chittagong University teacher Maidul Islam had been sent to jail after implicating him in a case under the draconian Section 57 of the ICT Act 2006. 

‘The scholastic society is passing through a barren phase with everyone keen to surrender. Nothing like this happened in the past in this country,’ Anu said.

He asked the government to review its stand and dropping the controversial bill.

Revolutionary Workers Party of Bangladesh Saiful Haq said that the nation expects that the High Court Division would issue a suo moto ruling on the government about the legality of the bill as it contradicts the spirit of the Liberation War and the Constitution.

He also urged newspapers and the electronic media to stop work for one day in protest against the passage of the controversial bill.

Ganasanghati Andolan chief coordinator Zonayed Saki said that the government was trying to use the draconian bill to centralize power by extending indemnity to bureaucrats and the law enforcement agencies. He said that the bill would be used as legal coverage for torturing people as well as political activists.

Moderated by Ganasanghati Andolan central leader Feroz Ahmed the discussion participants included GA acting executive coordinator Abul Hasan Rubel, cultural activist Arup Rahee, human rights activist Hasnat Quaiyum and Bangladesh Cell Phone Users Association president Mohiuddin Ahmed. 

• Courtesy: New Age /Oct 07, 2018.