Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon and Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu leave Dhaka for Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj with their spouses on the Biman flight (DAC-1093) this morning.
This year a total of over one lakh Hajj pilgrimages are going to perform Hajj. This is the first time the two political leaders, who have long been involved in the left politics of the country, are going to offer Hajj.
Rashed Khan Menon, also the president of the Workers Party and Hasanul Haq Inu, also the president of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD), claimed themselves to be socialist leaders.
Of the two parties, JSD emerged in the political scenario of Bangladesh with the slogan of establishing a society based on “scientific socialism.”
The party strongly opposed the rule of the Awami League led by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and launched a strong campaign to overthrow the government.
It later changed its political stance and Inu participated in 2008 parliamentary election with the Awami League election symbol “boat” and for the first time in his political carrier he became an MP.
Later he joined Sheikh Hasina’a cabinet before the January 5 election.
Menon, however, joined the cabinet after the January 5 election. Menon too took part in two elections – in 2008 and 2013 – with the Awami League election symbol “boat”.
In the late 1960s, Menon was the president of the East Pakistan Students Union, student wing of the National Awami Party of Maulana Bhasani.
“I am very surprised that my Hajj issue has become a political issue. Why are people asking me so many questions about Hajj? What’s wrong if I pray for my country and people?,” Hasanul Haq Inu said yesterday over phone yesterday.
Inu said he would perform Hajj at his own expenses.
Both the veteran leftist political leaders in the country will be back in the town on October 13.
“I am a Muslim and if anybody has any doubt please come to me and directly ask me about it,” Rashed Khan Menon told the Dhaka Tribune.
He also said: “I have never presented myself as a religious leader and I have never been like that and will never ever be like that. I have no desire to become a religious trader.”
Both the leaders confirmed that they are going to attend the holly Hajj for the first time and made sure it would not be their last. The ministers’ Hajj issue came to limelight after BNP Chairperson Khalada Zia mocked at the two ministers in a public meeting on 23 September in Brahmanbaria.
“How does she know about my religious belief and practices? Does she know what I do at night?,” Inu said.
Apart from Menon and Inu, the government is sending a ten-member representative team to Saudi Arabia to look into the management of food and accommodation facilities for the Bangladeshi pilgrims. Religious Affairs Minister Matiur Rahman will lead the team.
Other members are UGC Chairman Professor AK Azad Chowdhury, Justices Md Faruk (M Faruk) and Sheikh Md Abdullah of the Bangladesh Supreme Court’s High Court Division, Religious Affairs Ministry Secretary Chowdhury Md Babul Hasan, Foreign Ministry Secretary Shahidul Haq, Secretary of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief Mesbah-ul-Alam, Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Director General (Senior District and Sessions Judge) Md Kamrul Hossain Molla, and Principal of Islamic Foundation Chittagong Moulana Muhammad Jalaluddin Al Quaderi.
