Khaleda sends greeting card to Hasina

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday greeted her archrival Awami League President Sheikh Hasina on Pahela Baishakh with a card.

She also greeted AL General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam in another card.

Contacted, Abdul Latif Jony, a member of a BNP delegation, said they, on behalf of the BNP chief, took the cards to the AL president's political office in Dhanmondi around 12:10pm. AL Office Secretary Abdus Sobhan Golap received the cards.

The BNP delegation was led by its Social Welfare Secretary Abul Khair Bhuiyan.

Jony also said the BNP chief in the Pahela Baishakh greeting card addressed Sheikh Hasina as the AL president, not as the prime minister. 

The nation will celebrate Pahela Baishakh on Thursday amid traditional fanfare and festivity.

Hasina and Khaleda, the chiefs of the country's two major political parties, greet each other through cards on the occasions of two Eids and Pahela Baishakh, though they have long been avoiding meeting each other or joining any programme where the other might be present.

On October 26, 2013, Hasina called Khaleda over the phone for the last time to invite her to the Gono Bhaban to talk about the 2014 general election. But the initiative failed as the two leaders did not budge an inch from their own positions on the dialogue.

A majority of voters in the country are youths who have never seen their two top leaders -- Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia -- talking to each other.

To mark the Armed Forces Day, the two had attended the same programme at Dhaka Cantonment during the military-backed caretaker government and also during Hasina's previous term in government. But they did not even exchange pleasantries, let alone talk.

In May 2009, Khaleda went to Sudha Sadan, Hasina's home, to express her condolence on the death of Hasina's husband Dr MA Wazed Miah. But they did not meet each other.