End old game of playing the ‘minority card’: Tarique

BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman yesterday called upon the people to come forward to eliminate the old game of playing “minority card” in a bid to uphold religious harmony in the country.
“Many games have been played with the religious minority card both within the country and abroad,” he said during a virtual meeting with BNP’s grassroots leaders and workers from the Chattogram and Barishal divisions.
The BNP leader said everyone knows who has long repeatedly tried to gain political advantage by exploiting a sensitive issue like the minority-majority divide and creating fictitious stories of persecution to conceal their misdeeds and destabilise the country.
“This old game of destroying communal harmony will not be allowed to be repeated in this country. Let’s either bury them [efforts to play minority card] or burn them in pyres,” he said.
The followers of one religion have traditionally protected the places of worship of another religion from the hands of the conspirators who try to destroy religious harmony in this country for ages. They have proved time and again that there is nothing called “minority” or “majority” in this country.
“We all have one and the same identity… that we all are Bangladeshis,” said the BNP acting chairman.
He suggested applying political wisdom and resisting in unison those who would do politics with the religious establishments by using religious belief of the people and edicts, those who question the identity of Bangladesh in the world arena and those who will use the divisions of religion and caste in the politics of Bangladesh for ill-purposes.
Talking about the current situation of Bangladesh, Tarique said the victory is still far away and the road to success is very long.
“We were in the opposition party for the last 17 years and we are still. Now it is not the time for complacency,” he said.
The BNP leader expressed optimism that the party would be able to present a new and changed Bangladesh to the people of the country if its grassroots leaders and activists could earn trust and affection for the party properly realising the public expectations in future as they stood by the party like sentinels during the crises in the past.
BNP standing committee members Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, Salahuddin Ahmed and Begum Selima Rahman also spoke at the rally.