Inu, Menon’s Hajj pilgrimage sparks talk

Jokes are flying on Facebook after a photo of the chiefs of two Left-leaning political parties in the ruling Awami League-led alliance, taken just before they left Dhaka for Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj, went viral.

Workers Party President and Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon, and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JaSaD) President and Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu left Dhaka for Jeddah on Sunday.

The picture posted on the popular social networking site shows the two leaders sitting in stitchless white robes at the airport.

One Facebook user, Tanim Ashraf, commented sharing the photo: “The comrades did not get respite from Hedayet (guide) of Allah.”

One Mohammad Haq wrote: “Alhajj communism.”

Khandker Rabik said: “They went for Hajj. May Allah accept it.”

Rashid Mamun commented: “Undoubtedly it’s another success of the incumbent government, particularly of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. She has succeeded in sending the leftists to Hajj. Whatever other people say, I’m feeling good (about it).”

Joydeb Das wrote: “It seems clerics could not have possibly sent the two left leaders to Hajj pilgrimage even if they had urged them for a hundred years. But Sheikh Hasina has done it by making them ministers.”

Akram Hossain wrote: “Souls of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin have been hurt.”

The two ministers are likely to come back home on Oct 13.