Foreign Minister Dipu Moni lost her temper in public yesterday. Her ire was directed at civil servants who were apparently not carrying out her directives. The incident took place at the foreign ministry.
Her reaction surprised officials and employees as they had never seen any minister react in such a manner in the past.
Witnesses and officials sources said it all began when Dipu Moni called some senior officials to her office and blasted them for not being able to follow her instructions.
She had gone to work yesterday morning after a six-day visit to Korea and China.
Sources said the director general of external publicity wing was subjected to her tongue-lashing for not being able to get a rejoinder in a Bangla daily published. She was also angry at the director general consular and welfare wing for the official’s failure in ensuring visas for her party men.
The foreign minister, according to witnesses, asked the DG (EP) to make the call to the newspaper in front of her and ask why they had not published the rejoinder. The DG complied.
Officials said the foreign secretary too later on called the editor of the Bangla daily, requesting that the rejoinder, regarding a report concerning corruption in the ministry, be published.
Witnesses said the foreign minister then came down heavily on the DG of the consular wing over delays in issuing letters of introduction to her party men as well as handling the refusal of visas for them.
The foreign minister, while coming out of her office around 10:15am, was shouting at the top of her lungs on the fourth floor corridor. She was yelling at several senior officials because she thought “they are not carrying out her orders possibly because her tenure is ending”, sources said.
They said the foreign minister was heard angrily saying, “You [officials] stay in the ministry, I am going and will not come back again.”
A senior official told The Daily Star that many foreign missions in Dhaka were irked by excessive formal and verbal requests for visas for ruling party men, especially from the foreign minister’s constituency in Chandpur.
Source: The Daily Star
