Religion-based political parties

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's categorical statement to her cabinet colleagues that her government has no intention of banning region-based political parties should set at rest all speculation about it in the wake of the HC's invalidation of the fifth amendment. What particularly strikes a responsive chord in all right-thinking people keeping welfare of the nation upper most in their mind is her reasoning behind her decision. Her argument is that if banned, politics of such denomination would go underground. She sagaciously visualises that when driven underground such politics could acquire all clandestine implications with portents for wreaking havoc on national psyche, let alone fuelling militancy.
Significantly, the PM is learnt to have iterated in the cabinet meeting that the words Bismillah-Ar-Rahman-Ar-Rahim will remain as it is in the preamble to the Constitution 'since it reflects the belief of the people'.
While we are in full agreement with her approach to the issue of religion-based politics and appreciate her clarifying her government's position without muddying it any further, we must warn against exploitation of religion by any quarter under any guise to serve their political ends. Our people are highly religious-minded, something that is often sought to be taken advantage of by people intent on capitalising religious sentiments of the people to push their narrow and rigid extremist political agenda. Let politics be in its temporal domain and religion be kept at its own spiritual plane; there should neither be any attempt to blend the two nor play one against the other, wedded to a pluralistic society of many faiths and ethnic groups as we are.
There is little scope for controversy over the issue; in fact, those who fulfill the criteria for registration with the Election Commission as political party will be treated as such.
There is another very sensible directive pronounced by her against the cacophony of voices being heard from ministers and lawmakers over the question of constitutional amendment dishing out confusing and misleading opinions about shape of things in the wake of the annulment of the fifth amendment. She has asked her party colleagues to refrain from these as an all-party parliamentary committee is to deal with the matter.