Kader Siddiqui fails to make headlines in some (obvious) places

A lesser talked event in the news today was the news of Kader Siddiqui getting bail in the defamation case. A Dhaka court on Monday acquitted the Krishak Sramik Janata League president in a case filed against him for calling Home Minister MK Alamgir a war criminal. It was filed by Ruhul Amin Majumder, who said that the remarks insulted him as a 'freedom fighter'.

According to the case details, Kader Siddiqui on Feb 9 at a party rally questioned the role of current Home Minister, saying he was a ‘Razakar’ in 1971 and that it was not possible to try war criminals keeping ‘Razakar Home Minister MK Alamgir’ in office. Media reports had highlighted the comment by Kader Siddiqui the next day.

The court granted him bail after Siddiqui appeared before it and appealed for bail on Monday morning, said his lawyer Mahbub Hasan Rana.

What comes to the attention of the independent observer is the low coverage this case has received from the media end. Although this low coverage could have been attributable to the fact that today was a hartal day, it need not have been so in an age when information is so readily available. In the online world this news has been published on various websites such as  bdnews24, rtnn news and natunbarta among others. However, the absence of this news was telling on the important online daily news agency, The Daily Star. It was also found absent on banglanews. Both these agencies had not hosted this news as of the time of writing this post (17:45).

It is mentionable that even though Kader Siddiqui had identified Mohiuddin Khan as a rajakar, he has found no support from Shahbag in this regard. On the contrary, leaders at Shahbag have called him a neo-razakar for his firm stance. This has left many scratching their heads as to the real motives of the Shahbag crowd and forced the conscious society in Bangladesh to look beneath the mask of the 'pro-liberation attitude'.

I'm not going to elaborate any more on the above topic since it has been explored ad nauseam on the internet. I end with the hope that the Daily Star and banglanews24 rise above the arena of petty politics and yellow journalism and report news according to the merit it deserves.