Dhaka, Jan. 24 -- The silly, avoidable and embarrassing situation created by the Election Commission setting city corporation election dates on the same day as Saraswati Puja tells you that the functioning mechanism of the Bangladesh state is creaking. People didn't like it, many were protesting, students went on a hunger strike and finally the political part of the government took notice and resolved the problem.

The date was shifted by two days which has created more problems as it fell on the February launch of school exams (these have since been shifted) but at least the government doesn't come across as an insensitive state and somewhat clueless about the trends of public opinion.

The initial resistance by the EC was quite an unnec...