New Age editor in ‘BBC Shanglap'

Just now (16 April, 2007, evening) I have finished watching ‘BBC Bangladesh Shanglap (dialogue)’ on Channel-i. Three of the four panel members, i.e. Barrister Mainul Hosein, Ambassador Mofazzal Karim and former minister Matia Chowdhury were matured, calm, articulate, sober, objective and to the point. But the New Age editor Nurul Kabir was excited, most of the time irrelevant, not objective and not to the point. He spoke like a half-baked ‘Amtala speaker’ who only cares for cheap popularity. It seemed he came to the talk show only to malign the present non-party caretaker government forgetting the circumstances under which the present government came to power and the present realities on ground. At one stage Barrister Hosein rightly quipped that politics was not writing poems. Nurul Kabir did not miss a moment to retort back that someone said that politics was the highest form of art. Nurul Kabir, I am afraid, did not understand the sober snub directed to him by Barrister Hosein. Mofazzal Karim and Matia Chowdhury, though criticised the present government, but were not found lacking in eulogising the actions of the present government when it was called for. I have been going through the editorials and comments written by Nurul Kabir (if those are penned by him) on different occasions and published in the New Age. I go through them patiently. To me it appears he does not measure even up to the knee of his illustrious predecessor Enayetullah Khan. Nurul Kabir is impatient and impulsive. The publisher of the daily might reconsider continuing with Kabir as the editor. May I also suggest to the local bureau of BBC to be more rational and careful while selecting panellists for such important and sensitive dialogues.