Ground Realities

Secularism and this "moderate Muslim" state
Syed Badrul Ahsan
Law Minister Moudud Ahmed surprised us the other day when he informed the country that the people of Bangladesh had never accepted secularism as a principle of state. And then he surprised us even more. The secularism practised in Bangladesh in the early years of freedom was, said he, a negation of religion.
Now, while we remain quite aware of the niche Moudud Ahmed has carved for himself in national politics since the time of General Ziaur Rahman through some of his swift changes in political loyalty, we surely did not expect him to do, or say, certain things that are simply not true.
The minister, in his younger days, was close to the Awami League leadership of the time. And he was one of the millions of people in this country who watched the evolution of Bengali politics through the 1960s and well into the 1970s. It is, of course, quite normal for a political being to part company with his political peers and go looking for new places in the sun. Moudud Ahmed has done that. But when such changes in position lead to a total repudiation of history it is a whole society that goes through indescribable pain. More.....