Monday | 9 December 2024 | Reg No- 06
বাংলা
   
Monday | 9 December 2024 | Epaper

Political career of Bangabandhu

Published : Wednesday, 17 March, 2021 at 12:00 AM  Count : 5302
Mir Mahfuzul Haque
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the greatest Bangalee of thousand years was born on March 17 in 1920 at the home of Sheikh Lutfar Rahman and Sheikh Sayera Khatun at Tungipara village under the then Gopalganj subdivision. Mujib, the third among six brothers and sisters. His Primary education was in the local Gimadanga School. He passed Matriculation from Gopalganj Missionary School in 1942, Intermediate of Arts from Kolkata Islamia College in 1944 and BA from the same college in 1947.

Sheikh Mujib showed his leadership potentially since school life. While he was a student of Gopalganj Missionary School, AK Fazlul Huq, the then Chief Minister of Bengal, visited the school in1938, then young Mujib stroke the attention of the two leaders. While a student in Islamia College he was elected general secretary of the College Students Union.

He was an activist of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League and a member of the All India Muslim League Council from 1943 onwards. In politics, he was an ardent follower of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, a legendary leader in the Indian subcontinent. The Muslim League deputed Sheikh Mujib to work for the party candidates in the Faridpur District during the general elections in1946.

Having completed studies from Islamia College, Kolkata in 1947, he took admission in law at Dhaka University. Then the University authority expelled him in 1948 on the charge of making incitement of the fourth-class employees in their agitation against the University authority's indifference towards their legitimate demands. He went to jail twice in 1948. Subsequently, he spent in jail about one-fourth of his lifetime due to uncompromising characteristics.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman worked for the formation of the East Pakistan Muslim Students League in1948 and the Awami Muslim League in June 1949. He was selected for the post of joint secretary of the newly established East Pakistan Awami Muslim League in1949 while he was sent to jail again due to his active participation in politics. In 1953, Sheikh Mujib was elected general secretary of the East Pakistan Awami Muslim League. Mujib also took initiative to drop the word 'Muslim' in 1955 in order to make transparency for secularism.

In the provincial elections of March 1954, the Awami League played a pioneering role in the creation of the Jukto Front. Following Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy's death in 1963, Sheikh Mujib revived the Awami League in January 1964. He demonstrated his desire to reform the party which would eco the desire of Bangalee people.

He announced the Six-Point programme of regional autonomy at a conference of Pakistan's opposition parties in Lahore in February 1966. In May that year, he was arrested under the Defence of Pakistan Rules and he was charged with conspiracy to break up Pakistan what was given out as the Agartala Conspiracy Case in January 1968. Countrywide mass uprising compelled the government to withdraw the case of the Agartala conspiracy on February 22, 1969. The next day Bangalee nation staged huge rally at the then Racecourse Maidan in which Sheikh Mujib was officially honoured as Bangabandhu (Friend of Bengal).

Bangabandhu led Awami League attained decisive victory in Pakistan's first general elections in December 1970. However, Pakistani rulers began to conspire against the Awami League and people of the then East Pakistan through which they denied to Awami League to form a government. Bangabandhu went before the nation on March 7, 1971 and delivered what clearly was the finest speech of his career.

His speech changed the course of the history and gave to millions of Bangalee a new sense of direction for emancipation and independence. As the Pakistan army launched its genocide on March 25, 1971, Bangabandhu proclaimed Bangladesh's independence early on March 26. Pakistan Army arrested him and carried him to Karachi jail to be put on trial on charges of treason and gave him death sentence.

An all-out guerrilla war began against the Pakistani oppressive regime and victory achieved on December 16, 1971. It was his political decision, inspiration and moral persuasion that made mass people sacrifice their lives. Bangabandhu returned home like a hero of history on January 10, 1972 at the emergence of the Bangalee nation defeating Pakistan.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had just fulfilled his life's dream of freeing his people and giving them an independent country before his assassination along with most of his family members, in the pre-dawn hours of August 15, 1975. The killers of August 15, 1975 and their complicities tried to erase his name from the history of Bangladesh. It is a fact that they could not succeed in this regard. The killers could not realize that history would not forget him.

World leaders acclaimed Bangabandhu as a unique leader. Cuban leader Fidel Castro told in 1973 that he had not seen the Himalayas but seen Sheikh Mujib. "In personality and in courage, this man is the Himalayas." Manipur and Jharkhand former governor Ved Marwah wrote: "I have met many charismatic personalities during my service career, including Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and many world leaders, but I must say that among them Sheikh Mujib was the most charismatic personality I had met."

Famed Egyptian journalist Hasnein Heikal wrote, "Sheikh Mujibur Rahman does not belong to Bangladesh alone. He is the harbinger of freedom for all Bengalis. His Bengali nationalism is the new emergence of the Bengali civilization and culture. Mujib is the hero of the Bengalis, in the past and in the times that are."

Bangabandhu was the epitome of courage. His smile radiated confidence and instilled courage in people who united the nation by his charismatic leadership. For political and economic emancipation and finally for independence Bangabandhu struggled throughout his entire life.
Mir Mahfuzul Haque, Retired Professor of Management & Principal





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