No Place Like Home

The time may have come for the PM to reappraise the wisdom of living in Gulshan.

Now we know that the old PM’s residence is unavailable, but there are government residences such as the one that housed the Chief Adviser that might be more suitable to the PM than a private house in a residential neighborhood.

The problem with his current residence is that his security has created massive gridlock and completely upended life in one quadrant of the area.

It’s the little things that count. It’s no good using your own personal vehicle and asking the IGP not to disrupt traffic when you move, while at the same time limiting movement on all the roads in the vicinity of the PM’s residence and thus snarling up traffic from morning till night. That’s what people remember.

It is worth recalling that in the February election the PM was elected in Dhaka-17 by a surprisingly slim margin of just a few thousand votes over his unfancied Jamaat-e-islami rival. That too in a constituency where the Jamaat has never done well.

If Tarique wishes to retain his slim majority in his adoptive constituency, he may wish to reconsider the inconvenience he is causing to the voters there as a result of his choice of residence.

Doubtless the PM is blissfully unaware of the indignities that his neighbours have to suffer as a result of the security measures taken to accommodate his residence.

But suffer they do, and not just those who live there. Road 71 has long been a busy thoroughfare for those who live in Baridhara and Baridhara DOHS and the road-blocks and security measures that have been placed there ensure that commuting to and from these areas is now a long and painful experience.

Lest we think that the only people adversely affected are the elite who populate these neighborhoods, please rest assured that the working class population of Kalachandpur and Nodda are the worst affected.

This is because rickshaws and two-wheelers are now simply forbidden from plying most of the roads in the vicinity of the PM’s house and foot traffic has also been severely curtailed, forcing those who live in these neighborhoods but work in Gulshan to have to take lengthy detours to get to work in the morning and home from work at night.

In short, the conditions that have been created around the PM’s residence are exactly the opposite of the image he has taken such pains to cultivate and are rapidly undoing the goodwill engendered by his other efforts to appear to be a man of the people -- at least in the area in which he resides and will seek re-election from.

No one is to blame here. I am sure that the PM himself has no idea of how these security measures have disrupted the daily working lives of thousands who either live or work or have to travel through the area.

Similarly, one cannot really blame the security personnel who are simply doing their jobs. Nor can one suggest that the security measures are unnecessary (though the preference given to private cars over other forms of transportation and pedestrians is questionable). The PM needs security.

But this is precisely why there needs to be -- and until recently there was -- a special residence for the PM.

The British prime minister resides at 10 Downing Street. The US president at the White House. There is a reason why national leaders don’t reside in private houses in residential neighborhoods.

Gonobhobon is long gone, and I am certain that the PM would not want to live there even had it not been repurposed as the July Memorial Museum. Sometimes a clean break with the past is necessary.

But if Gonobhobon is an unsuitable spot for the PM to reside in, there still remain many other government buildings that would be perfectly suitable, such as (for instance) the one in which the Chief Adviser resided during his term in office.

The Chief Adviser has now returned to his private residence, coincidentally just a stone’s throw from the PM in Gulshan, as it happens. But as he is now a private citizen, there is no inconvenience to anyone attached to his staying there.

Upon the completion of his tenure as PM, I am sure that the residents of Gulshan would be thrilled to welcome Tarique, his family, and his cat Jebu as their neighbors.

But for now, it might make more sense for all concerned, for the PM to consider an official residence.

Zafar Sobhan is the Editor of the weekly Counterpoint.