Kader Siddiqui has ‘apologised to Allah’ for his estranged brother Abdul Latif Siddique, about to be taken out of Cabinet for his comment on Hajj.
“I’ve come with a heavy heart to say that Awami League presidium member, minister Latif Siddique is no one to me. But in the eyes of Allah, he is my elder brother,” he told a press conference in Dhaka on Saturday.
“He has hurt the sentiments of Muslims. So as his younger brother, I urge the Almighty Allah to forgive him.”
Siddique, Minister of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, drew widespread condemnation after rubbishing the practice of Hajj at a programme in New York on Sept 28.
“So much manpower is wasted over the Hajj. Two million people are now in Saudi Arabia for the Hajj. They have no work or role in production. They only eat and go abroad using the country’s money,” Siddique was heard saying in a video clip of the programme.
The BNP, Jatiya Party, Jamaat-e-Islami and Chittagong-based group Hifazat-e Islam demanded that he be expelled from government and put on trial for ‘hurting religious sentiments’.
Cases for hurting religious sentiments were filed in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet courts.
Meanwhile, Cabinet Secretary Md Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan on Saturday said the process to remove him was ‘complete’.
His brother Kader Siddiqui, Liberation War hero and former leader of Awami League, now heads the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Janata League he formed nearly two decades ago.
He has been a staunch critique of the Awami League chief and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Urging Latif Siddique to apologise, Kader said: “If he doesn’t apologise to Allah for his comment, then he must face legal justice.”
The telecoms minister, however, had stood by his remark in an interview given to BBC Bangla from Mexico. “I made the comments on Hajj as a free and modern man,” he said.
In the press conference, Kader was not the one to miss out on the opportunity to take a dig at the Awami League, suggesting Latif’s comment against Hajj ‘was not just his’.
“We condemn Latif Siddique and his party for the comment he made against Hajj in New York. This horrendous comment cannot just be his alone.”
“Krishak Sramik Janata League believes what he said was the official comment of the entire Awami League and their forceful, unelected government.”
Source: Dhaka Tribune
