Why we fail to mourn 15 August as one nation?

Perhaps the easiest answer to the title above is because of the intense political hatred that has bitterly divided the country and its people. The fact that extreme political rivalry can give birth to extreme divisions is evident in Bangladesh for quite some years now, so much so that reciprocated political mistrust seems to have changed the definition of ruthless assassinations in our country. Statesman and the architect of independent Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and majority of his family members, except two of his daughters, never deserved to be killed in such unprecedented brutal manner.
However, 42 years to the day of his assassination and the country's political parties still fails to unite under a single umbrella to denounce his killing. It is now, more than any time before that our rival political parties should start soul-searching behind the actual reason - what prevents them from mutually condemning his killing?
From numerous visits to India and the recent visit to Pakistan, this writer had come across a few politicians, writers and journalists of those countries - who grudgingly disagree with some political actions and lifestyles of Mahatma Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Fractions of the RSS and extreme religious political entities and also some rightists in India still continue to condemn many of Gandhi's actions but when it comes to his uncompromising stance for liberating India -- they all gather in one platform to mark their respect for him.
On the topic of his assassination all political entities in India at least stay away from insulting or make a mockery out of it. The same in Pakistan -- despite Jinnah's typical English and un-Islamic lifestyle many in Pakistan have voiced and penned their pointed disagreements , but when it comes to his political career while making the Pakistan dream a reality -- he is the one and only Quaid-i-Azam. This is to say -- people largely in the said two countries carry a special place for their founding fathers in their hearts -- notwithstanding all disagreements.
Rather despondently, in Bangladesh it hasn't happened the same way in the case of Bangabandhu. Opposition political factions have not only indulged in mocking his unpardonable killing, but one of them went as far as celebrating a fake imaginative birth anniversary of its leader. Dangerously there seems to be a moral shift in understanding of ethical codes of conduct for some politicians in our country. Branding wrong as wrong appears to be a 'political defeat' for them. 
The point, however, a crime is a crime and unless all parties agree to it -- the unity needed to thrive together will never come. Concerning Bangabandhu's assassination and contributions I am clear to my conscience. Bangabandhu was definitely the founding father of Bangladesh who never deserved to be brutally assassinated.         
Political preferences may differ, one may hate or love a politician but one should never prop up the unlawful and ruthless killing of that politician, and especially if that politician is the founding father of a nation.  
Age-old political distrust and disagreement on many political actions of Bangabandhu will continue unabated. Those undermine him will keep spotting the spree of imaginative and pointless 'errors' but history will remain to place him in his deserved position.
If this writer understands correctly, Bangabandhu was first a human, and then a politician. He was not a prophet or messiah, and of course not beyond to have committed errors. It is, however, for only one unique and unparalleled contribution that the people of Bangladesh and the rest of the world will never forget him -- his uncompromising stance in the creation of the Peoples' Republic of Bangladesh.
Need of the minute is to jointly condemn the inexcusable killings of 15 August, 1975 despite all differences of opinion. Not to forget, unlike the late President Zia-Ur-Rahman's assassination -- the massacre inflicted on Bangabandhu and his family was entirely different -- the day also marks the beginning of open confrontation between civil and military rule in Bangladesh. Fortunately our military establishment appears to have marked the manifest flaws in its erstwhile top-brass and refrained from meddling in local politics.
But the political parties since 1991 chose a destructive path by wrongly defining and observing the killing of Bangabandhu and his family members.
On this day, this writer can't help asking -- what if, Bangabandhu was not a politician and a Statesman but just a private citizen to have been murdered on 15 August? What would have been the instant reaction of all our political parties together?
If the mutual reaction is common, it is okay. If it is dissimilar -- our politicians are on the course to re-define unlawful killing at par with their political agendas while divide the people only for the worse.
To finish with, irrespective of different political preferences and a long-list of disagreements, we must mutually condemn the 15 August killings, at least on legal and humanitarian grounds, and for being citizens of a civilised country too. We fail to do so for a simple reason -- some of our politicians' inability to separate right from wrong.

The writer is Assistant Editor, The Daily Observer