Our "single-mother"
land Bangladesh is yet to confirm who exactly fathered this nation, even
after a long 36 years later. Despite standing tall as a recognized,
legitimate nation and being a legitimate creation; our politicians,
their chauvinists and intellectual's have been arguing on this issue
with many illegitimate thoughts of their own, leaving trails of nascent
bloods of nation's leaders, heroic freedom fighters and of thousands of
innocent men, women and children those laid down their lives for our
cause, for our freedom. In serving all deserving respects and
gratefulness to those heroes, we could better restrain our emotion of
political philosophy and be kinder and gentler on this ceremonial issue
of recognizing our founding fathers instead of creating a never-ending
dilemma. Vengeance out of our even handed mentally not only led to the
distortions of nation's history of independence but also reflect our
cruelty to their deserving respects. Our "showdowns" of showing respects
(to whom?) every year, on Ekushey February, 25 March or 16 December have
become vaguely fake and artificial fashion shows without our united
efforts and true conviction of love, loyalty and respects to these late
founding fathers and many others alike. In the deepest sense, our head
grown, calculated and biased attitude towards those leaders and freedom
fighters who contributed to this nation's creation, shall generate a bad
illustration of our mean mentality to the future generation. We need to
rethink with our knowledge, judgment and wisdom and should award all the
befitting seats they deserve to those asterisk souls.
So, who is the father of our motherland? Isn't he Sheik Mujibur Rahman?
Is anyone else coming forward to challenge or replace him? Do we really
need a father of the nation? How many nations in this modern world have
"father of the nation"? Is it anything wrong to have one of our own? Why
Mujib should be the father of the nation or why he shouldn't be? If
indeed he fathered this nation, what kind of father was he? During mid
March to 25 March 1971, what was in Mujib's mind while he was engaged in
marathon negotiations with butcher Yahia and Prince Bhutto? What exactly
were they trying to resolve? Was it any freedom of Bangladesh or just
formation of a new Government of Pakistan? If Bangladesh was in his mind
beforehand, then why didn't he stealthily disappear to call and fight
for our freedom? If Prince Bhutto would have agreed with Mujib on power
sharing, what could possibly be the outcome of their negotiation? What
were the exact successes of Mujib AFTER his arrival from Pakistan until
he and his almost entire family members including minor child were
mercilessly killed? How did the nation exactly react immediately after
his gruesome killing and why? Was it a punishment, revenge or a national
award to Mujib? And what role did Awami League leadership play
immediately after his death?
You see, there could thousands of curious questions as above while the
nation would be considering calling him father of the nation but at the
end of all these dogmatic fights, the dispositions or decisions shall
only move to all reversed directions. Thus, in depth analysis of all
those inquiries are irrelevant when the nation is solemnly recognizing
this ceremonial but the most honorable place in our history of
independence.
This nation can not even start its history of birth (creation) without
Mujib. The most powerful nationalist political leader in the history of
Bangladesh, Mujib has a long political celebrity career. For his
leadership in the liberation struggle of Bangladesh as well as for his
patriotic struggles and battles for many years for the freedom of the
"Bengali people" of former East Pakistan, he became nation's founding
father, also known as "BangaBandhu". Mujib was involved in raising
issues of all the institutional discrimination against Bengalis in
Pakistan that led him to the concepts of his 6 Points. His movement's
main agenda was the realization of the 6 demands put forward to end the
exploitation of East Pakistan by the West Pakistani rulers. His Movement
was a "Bengali nationalist movement" in East Pakistan, conceiving for
the first time toward the birth of a free nation, a new country for all
of us.
In December 1970 election, Mujib's leadership won a massive majority in
the Pakistani Provincial legislature and all but 2 of East Pakistan's
quota of seats thus forming a clear majority. As the talks between
butcher Yahya, Mujib and Prince Bhutto collapsed; Mujib led defiantly a
"Resistance Day" on March 23, 1971 in East Pakistan instead of the
traditional all-Pakistan "Republic Day". Yahya decided to solve the
problem of East Pakistan by repression. On the evening of March 25, he
flew back to Islamabad. The military crackdown in East Pakistan began
that same night. The Pakistan Army launched a brutal and terror campaign
calculated to intimidate the Bengalis into submission. Within hours a
wholesale slaughter had commenced in Dhaka with the heaviest attacks
concentrated on the University of Dhaka and the Hindu area of the old
town. Mujib was captured (?) and flown to West Pakistan for
incarceration.
Mujib arrived in Dhaka to a rancorous welcome on 10 January 1972 and
first assumed the title of President but vacated that office two days
later to become the Prime Minister. His government was plagued by
corruption, intrigue, infighting and insurgency by the ultra-left
activists as well as reactionary forces that opposed independence. The
economy was devastated by a famine in 1974 and some exaggerated accounts
of the famine contributed to further discredit his Government. Mujib
pushed through a new constitution and adopted it on 04 November 1972 to
have a Prime minister appointed by the president and approved by a
single-house parliament. The Constitution enumerates a number of
principles on which Bangladesh is to be governed. These have come to be
known as the tenets of "Mujibism" (Mujibbad) which include the four
pillars of nationalism, socialism, secularism, and democracy.
The Constitution was amended again in January 1975 to make Mujib
President for five years and to give him full executive powers. He wiped
out all opposition political parties and proclaimed Bangladesh a
one-party state in February1975, effectively abolishing the
Parliamentary system. He renamed the Awami League the "Bangladesh
Krishak Sramik Awami League" (BAKSAL) and required all civilian
Government personnel to join the party. The fundamental rights in the
Constitution were ceased and Bangladesh was transformed into a personal
dictatorship. A paramilitary force (Rakkhi Bahini) loyalist to the party
was raised that was ruthlessly used to subdue any opposition. This force
was responsible for many extra-judicial killings of mainly left-wing
extremists.
On 15 August 1975, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman with several other members of
his family including minors was brutally killed in a military coup. In a
wider sense, some disaffected officers and several hundred troops they
led, represented the grievances of the professionals in the military
over their subordination to the "Rakkhi Bahini" and Mujib's indifference
to gross corruption by his political subordinates and family members.
Although initially given the appearance of an act of revenge by a group
of disgruntled junior army officers, facts later emerged that presented
evidence of a long-planned conspiracy. Some cabinet ministers,
bureaucrats wary of civilian power and military leaders claiming the
full glory of the war of independence participated in this coup. Mujib
was replaced by one of the conspirators, his own former minister of
commerce Khondaker Mostaq Ahmed.
Nevertheless, Sheikh Mujib proved to be a charismatic politician and a
national leader but his "administrative leadership" was not as effective
as his "political leadership and Statesmanship". His love for the then
75 million of people of East Pakistan and patriotism were intransigent.
Mujib had a vision for success and prosperity of this nation but had no
precious plan of actions in place to accomplish his mission. However, it
was never his perfidy. Thus, none of these should make his many years'
dedication and intrepid struggle any lighter or should create any cloud
on his patriotism, political leadership and true love for this nation.
He deserves nation's accolade for ever.
