The first day of February, the beginning of the month in which the primary foundations of Bangladesh were launched in the year of 1952. It was the month and the day 21st of that month when our language was salvaged from the new-fangled regime’s foremost oppressive touches. It was the month and that devastating yet glorious day 21st of February, we can safely say, when the dream of Bangladesh began its journey : A dream at its infancy, a dream greatly fragile, but a great dream nonetheless.

To relate the parable again of sacrifices made by the martyrs on the 21st of February for our mother tongue seems quite redundant because it is embedded deep in our identity and entity. Hence, when in a festive mood, but also all the while keeping in mind the great loss we incurred, the bloggers community of Bangladesh celebrated the first day of February as the ‘Bangla blog day’ 2010, it should not come as a surprise, rather it seems it was meant to be.

Like many ever-persisting nightmares that follow our beloved country (such as the loud arrogant presence of the War Criminals), the selection of this day also could not remain unanimous. The bloggers are aware that another blog declared the day 19th December last year as the Bloggers’ day without exhibiting any sound reasons for doing so as that month is mainly about celebrating our victory, not really our language. Quite rightly, this call failed to gain the support of the rest of the bloggers who write in Bengali. The bloggers of ‘Amar Blog’ one of those that differed and that difference was justified in the sense that February is the month which we remember for our language, the struggle for language and it is undeniably true that Bengali Blogging is mostly about loving that language, to express one’s dreams, thoughts and frustrations in that language. ‘Amar Blog’, with the support from other Bengali online communities, felt 1st of February would fit the day most. With the opening of Boi Mela, Amar Blog bloggers also celebrated the honor of the first blog community with a stall in the national book fair ‘Ekushe Boimela’ which increased their reasons for celebration much more. And, the programme was not limited to Dhaka.

In the first part of the day highly esteemed Dr. Md, Jafar Iqbal declared ‘The Bangla Blog Day’ cutting a cake from Shahjalal University, Sylhet. The programme was rendered live via blog and cheered by bloggers. Later, in the afternoon, many of the bloggers met in the Dhaka University Campus close to ‘Boi Mela’ and celebrated the Bangla Blog Day as well as the opening day of the Book Fair. The celebrations continued till the fair was closed for the day. Live video streaming was arranged to showcase the programme online, and those who couldn’t attend and the bloggers living abroad joined the celebrations with posts and comments. A bloggers’ meet was also arranged in London near Whitechappel Art Gallery where several bloggers living in UK shared the fun. This was, indeed, the right way to start this great month.

Happy Bangla Blog Day to everyone!

Some leaders of the BNP, Awami League and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and the panel of advisers dealing with political negotiations were keeping in touch till Thursday evening although the feuding sides were divided on the implementation of the four-point demand of the BNP and its allies.

‘The advisers communicated with some of us on Wednesday to know whether we would contest the polls if it could be held on December 28,’ the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, said at a briefing Thursday evening in her office at Gulshan. ‘They [advisers] said three of the four demands could be considered if the alliance agreed to the December 28 elections.’

Four of the five advisers dealing with political negotiations had a meeting at the secretariat on Thursday with the communications adviser, Ghulam Quader, in the chair.

The panel members — law adviser AF Hassan Ariff, LGRD and cooperatives adviser Anwarul Iqbal and commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman — attended the meeting, which lasted for an hour and a half, to discuss ways to address the political crisis.

When approached after the meeting, the advisers refused to disclose anything to newsmen. All of them came out of the communications ministry one after another at about 1:30pm and hurried away, ignoring the queries of reporters waiting outside.

A section of influential persons in the military-controlled interim government, including some advisers, had also contacted other leaders, including BNP standing committee members Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain and Mahbubur Rahman and joint secretary general Nazrul Islam Khan and the Awami League’s joint general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam on Wednesday and Thursday.

The BNP-led alliance chief, Khaleda Zia, Monday evening gave the government 48 hours to take measures to implement its four-point charter of demands.

The five advisers held negotiations with Khaleda Zia and her political arch-rival Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina Tuesday evening.

The government’s specific proposals included rescheduling of the national elections to December 28, instead of December 18, a complete withdrawal of the state of emergency before the parliamentary polls considering law and order on the ground, holding of the upazilla elections on January 8 and assurance of the highest caution and procedural transparency in the application of Article 91(E) of the Representation of the People Order.

According to the sources involved in the parleys, the BNP-led alliance on Wednesday agreed to the government’s proposal for the deferral of polls, but insisted that the state of emergency should be withdrawn completely and immediately and Article 91(E) of the Representation of the People Order should be suspended.

The Awami League told the government that would will have hardly any reservations if the parliamentary elections are deferred till December 28 ‘to hold an inclusive election’ without making more changes in the electoral process, said sources close to Hasina and Khaleda.

But the government at about 9:00pm on Wednesday said it would hold parliamentary and upazila elections on the dates already announced, December 18 and 28, as talks with the two major political camps led by the Awami League and the BNP failed.

In an immediate reaction at about 10:00pm on Wednesday, the BNP and its allies termed ‘partisan, unacceptable and extreme’ the military-controlled interim government’s decision of holding the suspended elections on December 18 amid the state of emergency.

The alliance has, however, kept avenues open for further negotiations by asking the government to take immediate measures to implement its demands.

In an immediate gesture Wednesday night, the Election Commission extended by three days the deadline for the submission of nomination papers for both the parliamentary and upazilla elections, which was scheduled to expire on Thursday.

The BNP’s secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain Thursday morning said, ‘Scopes for talks are still there.’