The New Nation - Internet Edition

Bangladesh is very fortunate, my belief, for the first time ever to have an Election Commission as it is now having Dr ATM Shamsul Huda as the chairman and two others as the members, everyone is credible by all and sundry like ours among citizens in the country. I am sure that the people would continue not only to wish them all well so far as credible neutrality is concerned but also for them to fully accomplish the critically difficult task they have ahead as the prime goal in holding free, fair, neutral and credible general election in the country by the end of 2008.

The task is not only critically difficult for arithmetical issues of the eligible 90 million or so figures of voters in geting them enrolled, correctly registered ensuring various criteria, conduct the polls peacefully etc. but also the real difficulty that would be in reconcilement of contending parties over 100 on issues never reconcilable, because they remained irreconcilable for over three and a half decades now since 1972. The great difficulty and possibly the impossible task of the Commission would be, I am afraid, in trying anything towards such near impossible reconcilement The parties are divided not alone in their unbelievably huge numbers for the poorest country as ours is and typical leaders each of their own variety but also having many philosophies or differing outlooks about the country's future goals, in fact, nothing but for self-aggrandizement

It was a good decision for the Commission not to meet and exchange views with all of odd 100 or so parties but only 15 as they have listed for the first go. What we have seen very unfortunately, however, in the mean time in their meeting with only three of the listed ones enough of mud slinging as reported in the medias in the three sessions the Commission had with them. It is only as such likely that as they go on having other sessions with the rest of the parties we would have more misfortunes to hear about more mud slinging.

It may be a good practice as such for the Commission members to keep mum on irreconcilable contending issues, lest the Commission or any of its members are labeled partisan in one way or the other. Because, any such labeling may lead to labeling of the election process itself, howsoever neutral and fair the actual polling mater might in fact be. It may as such be good and useful for the Commission members to listen to more and more and talk less in their sessions and keep completely mum on controversial and irreconcilable issues in Bangladesh politics with the rest of the parties in the days ahead.

M.T. Hussain

Ibrahimpur

Dhaka-1206

To the world has l witness a unique date combination that signifies this magical figure 786 - the seventh day of the eighth month of the sixth year of the new millennium, or 786 for short Apart from the religious importance a majority of the Muslims atach to this number, 786 has astrological, historical, mathematical and astronomical significance too. This unique combination is repeating itself after 100 years and it will recur only after a century.

The number 786 is a gematrical (numerical) value of the Islamic invocation Bismillahi'r Rahmani'r Rahim, or In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful, which every Muslim is commanded to recite before doing any work. Muslims in the Indian subcontinent revere 786 and print it on wedding and other invitation cards and put it down on paper before they start to write anything.

However, Muslims in other parts of the world do not atach any religious significance to the number and write Bismillah (In the name of Allah) in full. According to Islamic scholar Hafiz Syed Shujath Hussain, in Arabic there are two methods of arranging leters, one of them being the Abjad (ordinal) method. Early Islamic scholars have assigned an arithmetic value to each of the Arabic leters from one to 1,000. The leters are arranged as Abjad, Hawwaz, Huti, Kalaman, Safas, Qarshat, Sakhaz and Zazagh. This arrangement was based on the gematric system adopted in West Asian languages like Aramaic, Phoenician and Hebrew. "We get the magical 786 if we take the arithmetic values of all the 19 leters in Bismillahi'r Rahmani'r Rahim," he points out Besides the Islamic importance, 786 has historical significance because the famous Abbasid Caliph, Harun Rashid, assumed the throne on September 14 in the year 786 CE. It was during his regime, and perhaps in the year 786 CE, that the gematrical value of Bismillah (786) was calculated and arrived at by Islamic scholars and linguists of his court, says Muslim religious teacher Maulana Abdul Kareem. Mathematically speaking, 786 is a sphenic number (a positive integer that is the product of three distinct prime factors). In other words, 50 can be partitioned into powers of two in 786 different ways, points out senior mathematics lecturer V. Radhakrishna. Also, 786 might be the largest "n" for which the value of the central binomial coefficient is not divisible by an odd prime squared.

This number is significant even in astronomy and astrophysics, leave alone astrology and numerology. The New General Catalogue refers to NGC786 as a magnitude 13.5 spiral galaxy in the constellation Aries. An asteroid has also been named as 786 Bredichina.

The triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn occurs very rarely and so far this astronomical event has been witnessed only thrice in living memory as it occurs only every 800 years. It was first recorded in 7 BC (the Star of Bethlehem in the sky at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ ), then in 786 CE, and the last time in the year 1583, according to an astro-mathematical calculation prepared by the University of Helsinki in the US. Astrologers point out that the ubiquitous astrological predictions trace their origin to the year 786 BC. This year is considered of great importance to astrology as it was the year of the official opening of the new temple dedicated to Babylonian god Nabu at Calah, an ancient city of Assyria. Nabu is represented by the planet Mercury and is considered the god of astrology among other things.

I took fatuah from while I visited India All-India Muslim Personal Law general secretary Abdul Rahim Qureshi told that "786" is writen only in India and Pakistan. It does not have any Islamic significance except that it is a numerical code for Bismillah.

Bahzad Rahman

Dhaka

Ward No.24 Office of Dhaka City Corporation is situated at Tilpapara, Khilgaon just within 100 yards of Tilpapara Mosque in the northeast Everyday thousands of city dwellers pass by this office either on foot or by transports since it stands on the Tilpapara-Goran Road. The visitors from the foreign countries might be pleased seeing the site of the office with the understanding that the city dwellers quickly get service from the said office in question. But the reality is a different to some extent For the last few days, the drains on both sides of the road in front of the Ward Office have been overflowing with excreta, urine and other garbage creating a very obnoxious environment It is never believable that no responsible person of the Ward Office has noticed it Surely someone has seen it

The dwellers of South Goran, Tarabagh, Provatibagh and Tilpapara hoped that DCC would take immediate step to remove the obstruction to restore normal flow of drain water. But unfortunately their expectation remained unfulfilled due to negligence of duties on the part of DCC and its ward Office.

Abdur Rashid

Sabujbagh

Dhaka