Politics would lose its charm if those tail-hangers were not around. They have been active in this part since the day Pakistan was created. These guys were always around as governments came and went by the dozen to keep the tamuddun of Pakistan intact. No matter who was in power, they would have their bagpipe and bugle under their armpit to let the world know about the great works their leaders were doing. And the pea-brain leaders could hardly realise what damage those tail-hangers were doing to their career.

With the creation of Bangladesh those tail-hangers quickly changed the tails they had been hanging by. From Pakistan lovers they became Bangladesh lovers overnight and began to swing from one tail to another during the rule of Bangabandhu, of Ziaur Rahman, of H.M. Ershad, of Khaleda Zia and of Sheikh Hasina. They were responsible for whatever bad name the governments of the past had earned. Despite warnings from well-wishers, many of the leaders listened to their whispers and took wrong decisions. Thus, tail-hangers often succeeded in keeping worthy people away from the leaders.

Perhaps the best example of tail-licking was set some years ago when some of the tail-hangers could persuade their great "uncompromising" leader to observe her birthday on a day when the entire nation mourned the assassination of the architect of Bangladesh, the Father of the Nation. The sudden announcement of the birthday had stunned the nation, and even some sensible politicians belonging to the same party had expressed their disapproval of such tail-licking.

On that extremely mournful day, the tail-hangers collect a large birthday cake and cut it without an iota of shame or remorse, laughing and clapping around the leader who possibly has no faculty to feel that they were not doing the right thing. They remain engrossed in their own distorted belief that what they were doing was called politics. But they are wrong. The birthday mockery, the laughter and the clapping cannot play down the sense of grief that takes possession of the nation outside the four walls of the birthday house.

Though they claim to believe in multi-party democracy and the creation of Bangladesh through the War of Liberation, they do not hesitate to be extremely disrespectful to the leader who had fought for the rights of the Bangalis against the Pakistanis since the fifties. Those tail-hangers never stop for a while to contemplate that most of their leaders would not have been anything more than muhuris in lower courts or shop-owners in their villages if Bangladesh had not been created. For that reason only they should show respect to the architect of Bangladesh.

In the latest binge of tail-licking, senior leaders of the same "democratic" political party have now come up with another "brilliant" idea of doing politics. After showing disrespect to August 15, they are now out to defile March 7 (imagine there are barristers, former vice-chancellors, university teachers, former army chiefs and highly educated people in that party). Some over-enthusiastic tail-hangers in the party have concocted the idea of observing March 7 as the day "their great leader, the prince, was sent to jail."

Senior leaders of the party, former ministers, went into fits of frenzy while talking about the "leader" who has yet to come out clean from various charges of corruption. The leader, having no academic background or exceptional brilliance as a political thinker, always remained protected under his mother's wings. And yet those veteran politicians, some of them freedom fighters in various capacities, are now ready to submit their career at the feet of such a man! All for a few crumbs! By Jove! What is left for the politicians to do next? Imagine! The man who personified corruption in this country is now being hailed by the tail-hangers as their leader!

Can this country ever expect ushering in of literate and honest people in politics and government? Why do tail-hangers always get the upper hand in pushing the unworthy into the front row?

[Source: The Daily Star]

Shahnoor Wahid is a Senior Assistant Editor of The Daily Star.