Culture of labeling people

I felt really sad to know that Professor Piash Karim has passed away. I personally do not know Prof. Karim, but have seen him in talk shows in Bangladeshi TV channels and have developed respect for him for his rational thinking. I was not too surprised to see the reactions of different people regarding his funeral.

The tendency to label people based on ideology or political view is a hindrance to progress and free thinking. A doctor's son is not a doctor, neither an engineer's son an engineer by birth. The freedom fighters of 1971 did a great deal of sacrifices and they worked hard to free our country and it is great to see that our nation enormously respects them. However, a freedom fighter's son is not a freedom fighter and a rajakar's son is not a rajakar. Nationalism can be a platform where we can bring all the people together and work towards development of our country. I believe the new generation of our country is more tolerant towards the differences that we have and more compassionate on the similarities that we share as a nation.

Mohammed Zakiur Rahman
Studying at Lund University, Sweden