Saifur Rahman's death

With reference to a few learned readers' comments about Awami League leaders, particularly the prime minister's not issuing an official condolence message on the sad demise of Mr. Saifur Rahman. One gentleman felt hurt and expressed his feelings in the letter column of your daily published on 21 October.

Well, Sir, I understand it is not a gentlemanly thing to speak ill about any dead man, but I feel constrained to point out a few things about late Mr. Saifur Rahman. I would rather not talk about his misdeeds and failures as the longest serving finance minister of our country, since that would take eternity to narrate.

I would only like to refresh the memory of the 'aggrieved 'ones that Mr. Saifur Rahman referred to Awami League MPs as penguins during a session of parliament as they were wearing Father of the Nation's trademark Mujib coat.

And again Saifur Rahman had the mentality to insult Syed Nazrul Islam, the first acting President of Bangladesh and one of the four national leaders. To refresh the memory of fellow readers, a mere bridge was named after this great leader. Late Saifur Rahman ,while proposing to change the name of the bridge, had the temerity to say, “Who is Nazrul Islam and wherefrom he is that a bridge has to be named after him?” In Bangla his exact words were ''Kotheker kay Nazrul Islam jay tar namey bridge kortey hobey''

We should not forget that it is because of Bangabandhu and leaders like Syed Nazrul Islam that we got independence and Saifur Rahman could become a minister, otherwise he would have remained an obscure figure.