Effective role required in preventing rumours

Whenever I want to write something about rumours, I first remember the famous stanza of poet Shamsur Rahman's 'Pandashram' poem, 'Ei niyechhe oi nilo jaah! kaan niyechhe chile, chiler pichhe amra sobai morchhi ghure ghure'( believing something blindly). Actually, we do not verify any information before believing it unconditionally and act accordingly. And finally what we experience is 'Pandashram (unfruitful efforts)'. Such rumours centering the national elections, are very scary as a vested quarter can serve their interest by spreading these rumours. For example, before this year's election, the most talked about rumour was that 'election is not taking place'. So caution is essential here.

Such trends of spreading rumours have existed in our society in the past, those still exist and maybe the practice will be perform in the future. And lies like propaganda are constantly spoiling our society-state-politics. Even the power of this rumour is so great that people lose even their wits. This leads to violence and sometimes even death.

Rumours and misinformation surrounding the elections in the country have increased recently, and will continue to increase. As the national elections will take place after a few days, trends of spreading rumours will be used as political tools.

The important thing is, the Public Security Department has already instructed the Executive Magistrates to be careful about various kinds of rumours in order to make the 12th Parliament election fair and acceptable. In that case, if we look at the latest report of the fact-checking initiative 'Rumour Scanner', we will find that the rate of election-centric rumours increased from October to December. Rumour Scanner says that a maximum of 56 rumours have been spread in the last three months surrounding the election involving Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. It has used Facebook and YouTube. Besides Sheikh Hasina, 24 rumours about Bangladesh Police, 18 about Chief Election Commissioner, 17 about diplomats, various countries and international organizations have been detected. They say that 83.70 percent of the total political rumours are focused on the national elections.

As the elections are approaching, the activity of rumourmongers is increasing. This trend of rumours, however, is much older in our electoral culture. These rumours are being spread through street talks, tea parties, public transports. There are different rumours in different places. The list includes various misinterpretations from the personal life of the opponent to the professional life. Abuse of religion is also very popular in this regard.

In such a situation, no matter what the authorities, the government and the society collectively do to deal with fake information, the individual must first be aware to get rid of this trap. You need to know which information to take from social media, which information to delete as soon as you see it. Also, when the necessary action is taken, the relevant authorities should take such action immediately without delay. About 3,000 executive and judicial magistrates will work in the field, their responsibilities are big. Not only 180 million people are watching this election, but the whole world is observing. They will evaluate how we choose, how much is acceptable. There is no alternative to fair and impartial elections. Therefore, the relevant authorities should play an effective role in preventing rumours.