Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expanded her cabinet on Thursday 13 September, it was not the news. The news was `Tofail, Menon decline to be ministers’.
The Daily Star portrayed it correctly. `No, thanks!’ was their lead headline title next day on 14 September about the news on cabinet expansion of Sheikh Hasina. `Strong signal sent out’ was another special report just behind the lead news of The Daily Star. Daily Star described the refusal of Tofail, Menon to be minister is unprecedented in the country's political history. In the lead news Daily Star wrote ` The new cabinet members -- five of them full ministers and two ministers of state -- were sworn in by President Zillur Rahman at Bangabhaban in the afternoon. But all eyes were on veteran Awami League leader Tofail Ahmed and Workers Party President Rashed Khan Menon, both of whom were offered posts in the cabinet which they declined. Their refusal is unprecedented in the country's political history.

The report starts saying ` Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday expanded her council of ministers by inducting seven new members -- most of them little known public figures except for Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir and Hasanul Haque Inu -- with many wondering about the reasons behind the move.

The five ministers are Inu, MK Alamgir, Mujibul Haque, Mostafa Faruque Mohammad and AH Mahmood Ali; and the two state ministers are Omor Faruk Chowdhury and Abdul Hyee. Having refused to join the cabinet, Tofail and Menon have upset Hasina, also the AL president, and other senior party leaders, 14-party insiders said. They added that had the prime minister discussed with them their inclusion in the cabinet, the situation would have been different.

It was only "natural" that Tofail would reject such a proposal at the fag end of the government tenure, they added, preferring not to be named. Clarifying his decision, Tofail said he did not want to be a minister, adding: "At the moment, I am not mentally, politically or socially prepared to take office as a minister."
Talking to reporters at his Banani residence, he said: "It doesn't matter whether I join the cabinet or not.
Moreover, Tofail and Menon feel that the government has failed to deliver in many sectors and paid no heed to many of their suggestions on issues like the share market scam and Sonali Bank scam, party leaders say.
"They obviously did not want to be part of that failure," one senior leader said. Some others inside the party see Tofail's refusal as a challenge and a "heavy blow" to the party and the government.

The Workers Party at its politburo meeting yesterday observed that the government had failed in many areas and thus had become isolated from the people. So it would be "imprudent" for Menon to join the cabinet, party sources told this paper. Menon said his party did not support the idea of his being a minister at this stage.
Following thursday's expansion, the number of cabinet members, including the prime minister, is 51. Daily Star published the oath taking photo of new ministers on page 2, while New Age in back page.

News Age’ s lead news headline title was `Hasina expands cabinet’. The news was very simple. There was nothing special in the news. Just mere mention of the ministers name, their oath taking ceremony etc. The report said the reshuffle took place when government is passing crucial time with lot of scandals. Such type of news treated as lead news was not justifiable. If it were given single column treatment it could be justifiable. Because the item was big and hot but writing was weak and there was lack of political sharpness in thinking.
The New Age published another single column report in front page and it was also very simple. The refusal of Tofail, Menon to be ministers revealed a lot of inside stories of the fragile government. It was a direct blow to the unpopular government. People saluted their decision. Different newspapers make it very clear to the nation. In this aspect New Age failed to catch the issue.

Rashed Khan Menon heavily came down on the government at the Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) `meet the press’ programme on Friday. Menon’s statement was another big slam to the government. This time New Age has been successful to cover it properly. On Saturday New Age puplished the news in front page titled `Menon terms it a ‘job offer’. The report said, The Workers Party of Bangladesh president, Rashed Khan Menon, on Friday said the government’s offer for him to join the cabinet did not follow a political process; rather it appeared like an offer of job and the remarks of the prime minister corroborated it.

The leftist leader, who had contested the last general elections with Awami League’s election symbol ‘boat’, explained the reasons for his refusal to take up a ministerial job at Dhaka Reporters Unity’s meet-the-press in the afternoon. ‘Actually, the way the offer was made did not follow any political process. The issue of cabinet membership is a policy issue but the invitation came from a secretary. I do not know of any such process of selecting ministers in any civilized country. It seemed like an offer of job... You take it or leave it,’ he said. ‘A cabinet can be expanded or reshuffled. A political party discusses policy issues in its highest forum. In the case of an alliance such matters should proceed through a political process but since the beginning, political process was not followed in the ruling alliance,’ he said.

Menon sought to dismiss speculations that he had declined the offer to become a minister to avoid the responsibility of the failures of the Awami League-led alliance. ‘Whether we want it or not, we have to take the responsibility of the government’s wrong policies. Workers Party is in the alliance and will remain in it. But it will continue speaking in parliament and outside against the wrong policies of the government,’ he said.
Menon said containing the prices of essentials was one of the most important issues facing the ruling alliance but it failed to do so. ‘Prices continue to rise. The syndicates could be dismantled,’ he said.
‘Open market should not be blamed for the price situation, rather it is the economy of plunder being practised by the government which is responsible...,’ he said, adding that the first budge of the present government was pro-people but afterwards it opted for neo-liberal economy of plunder.

The Daily Star published the news on page 3 titled `refusal to be Minister Proposal not made duly: Menon’
The report said, Bangladedh President Rashed Khan Menon yesterday said he rejected the government's offer to be a minister, as the proposal was not made maintaining a due political process.
“This was never part of a political process, and that has also been reflected in the Prime Minister's remarks,” he told journalists at a meet the reporters programme organised by the Dhaka Reporters Unity at its auditorium in the capital, reports ATN Bangla.
Menon's remarks came a day after the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday expanded the cabinet by including seven new members.

Menon said, “The cabinet secretary called me and informed that I was offered to be a minister and asked if I would join the council of ministers and take oath."
"I have no knowledge if anyone becomes a minister in a civilised country after being invited in such a manner,” he added.
Menon alleged that the government is not engaging the partners of the 14-party grand alliance in the decision-making process, and that the alliance has been inactive, which resulted in a centralised governance.
The prices of essentials are beyond the common peoples' buying ability, while in the name of addressing power crisis, the government encouraged quick rental power plants, whose objective was to serve personal interests, he noted.

There are dangers ahead if the government fails to address the crises that have gripped the nation, Menon said.Ruling party Bangladesh Awami League’s student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) activists mercilessly kick, stomp on and dancing over a laying activist of Chhatra Dal (Bangladesh Nationalist Party’ student wing ) on the Dhaka University campus on Monday, September 11. This was the caption of the related photo. Every news paper except the Daily Star published the photo in front page. Daily Star published the photo in page 5.

Later day Wednesday of course The Daily Star could not avoid the Rajshahi University (RU) BCL attacking Photo on Chatra Dal. On Monday Rajshhi University BCL beat mercilessly Chatra Dal activists. In front page the Daily Star photo caption was `Activist of Bangladesh chhatra League, the student body associated with the ruling Aawami League, beat up a member of Bangladesh Jatyatabadi Chhatra Dal, pro-BNP student organisation, at Rajshahi University yesterday’. New Age published the photo on back page

About DU incident report, published on 11 September, The Daily Star reporter made a comment, which was not fair for a reporter. That was `JCD leaders were barred from entering the university campus and prevented from carrying out political activities for the last three years on the ground that they were aged and non-student leaders. The Daily Star report was very simple. While the New Age report on the same issue on that day was very sharp. The report said, ` Activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League on Monday stopped members of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal from entering the Dhaka University campus.
At least 10 activists of the JCD were injured in several attacks by the pro-government BCL on the campus. The police, who had been silent spectators of the attacks, arrested three JCD activists.
BCL activists, along with the police, on Monday cordoned off Dhaka University to prevent JCD adherents from entering the campus. BCL leaders said they would not allow ‘terrorists and non-students to enter the campus’.

JCD leaders said they went to the campus to attend a pre-scheduled meeting with DU vice-chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique in his office at around 2:00pm. ‘Armed BCL terrorists, in the presence of the police, attacked us and injured at least 50 of us,’ complained JCD’s joint general secretary SM Obaidul Haque Nasir.
Witnesses said that at about 2:00pm, when several JCD activists tried to go to the vice-chancellor’s office, a group of BCL members wearing helmets and carrying hockey sticks attacked the JCD activists in front of the police.

At the order of the BCL’s high-ups, leaders of the BCL hall units cordoned off and guarded the entrances to the campus the whole day to keep the JCD men at bay. At least two groups of BCL activists, riding about 20 motorcycles, patrolled the campus.

BCL general secretary Siddique Najmul Alam said that general students stopped ‘terrorists’ from entering the campus. ‘We will thwart any attempt by non-students, outsiders and terrorists to enter the Dhaka University campus,’ he said. Dhaka University vice-chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique said he had a scheduled meeting with Chhatra Dal leaders. ‘But they did not come to me till 5:00pm. I am waiting for them’.