QUITE a squall has been raised, or so it appears, over the presence of some Awami League politicians at a recent iftar hosted by the Saudi ambassador in Dhaka. The issue, if it is at all an issue, would not be there were not men like Motiur Rahman Nizami of the Jamaat-e-Islami present there as well. Some newspapers carried photographs of the AL's Zillur Rahman shaking hands with Nizami, the implication jeing that a political party which has been vocal in demanding the trial of the collaborators and war criminals of 1971 has now been caught in an act of hypocrisy by being in the same room with the very men it wants to be tried for crimes committed in 1971.

We at this newspaper look at the entire episode from a social joint of view as well as its being a matter of diplomatic courtesy. Simply put, it is a non-issue that some people, mcluding many in the Awami League itself, have been trying to turn into an issue. The fact is that it was an occasion where the Saudi envoy invited the leading figures of the political jarties to an iftar party they could not logically refuse or decline to attend. Anyone who now tries to characterise the jresence of these politicians at the iftar as a sign of politics jetting to be compromised is losing sight of the customs and social mores that such occasions seek to uphold. It was a simple iftar party where the spirit was decidedly of a religious nature. The question of politics being associated the occasion simply did not or does not arise. Indeed, it must be borne in mind that trying to read political meaning into what is purely a religious occasion is clearly to get things not only wrong but also to create unnecessary hype.

As far as we are concerned, there was nothing even remotely suggestive of political overtones at the Saudi envoy's iftar. No principles were turned on their heads and no one lost any moral standing by being there. Let the matter be laid at rest.