Politics & Power Quote by Khaleda Zia

A politician promising unity is standard fare; what makes Khaleda Zia's line bite is the awkward, revealing slip at its core: "not for any division or communality". She means to condemn division, but "communality" (likely a muddled stand-in for communalism) accidentally indicts the very social glue she claims to protect. In a single misfire, the sentence stages the central anxiety of Bangladeshi politics: unity is celebrated in speeches, but feared in practice when it arrives as mass solidarity outside elite control.

As a statesman and opposition figure-turned-premier in a country shaped by liberation mythology, military rule, and bitter party rivalry, Zia is speaking into a charged arena where "unity" is never neutral. It is a mandate claim ("the nation voted us") and a disciplining device: the electorate didn't empower you to argue, protest, or fracture the narrative. The subtext is less kumbaya than command-and-control: harmony is the legitimizing story; dissent becomes a breach of national duty.

The phrase "communal harmony" adds another layer. In South Asia, "communal" is double-edged: it can mean neighborliness, but it also signals sectarian tension. Zia tries to position her government as the antidote to religious or factional conflict while also warning rivals that identity-based mobilization will be branded dangerous. The intent is to occupy the moral high ground preemptively: if you oppose us, you're not just political; you're a divider. The line works not because it is eloquent, but because it shows how easily "unity" becomes a weaponized virtue in a polarized state.