We, on the 46th anniversary of the death of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, recall him with great respect and due homage. Sheikh Mujib is the most blazing name in the firmament of the glorious history of Bangladesh. He was a man with a mission that boldly challenged the tyranny of West Pakistan. Bangabandhu worked all through his life for the establishment of the rights of his fellow countrymen, the Bangalees. Being a visionary and charismatic leader, he played the most crucial part in the emergence of independent Bangladesh. As the war-ravaged Bangladesh was marching towards prosperity and stability under his leadership, a few unscrupulous agents of Pakistan could not accept it and killed the country’s founding father and almost all of his family members on this day in 1975, in an aim to stop the country’s progress and take the country to a disastrous turn.
After his death, the country was overtaken by the reactionaries and slowly distracted from the spirit of Bangabandhu. The nation has seen over the long period a deterioration of ethics in politics, rampant abuse of power and intolerance of political difference. Corruption also crept into the system. Even in his own party, the Awami League, many leaders are found to be devoid of the teaching of their predecessor leader. The heinous crime remained unprosecuted for a long time. It was only in the second tenure of Awami League when, after finishing the legal procedure, some of the killers of Bangabandhu were hanged to death.
Forty-six years after the assassination of the Father of the Nation, we now need to ask ourselves the question: what have we as a collective body of people done to restore and uphold the principles upon which Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman guided us to liberty? Those principles were indeed the values we in this country, as Bengalees, have always held dear. And one very important reason why Bangabandhu is remembered, not just on his birth and death anniversaries but every day of our lives, is that he was one political figure who identified with us and comprehended our aspirations. He was one of us, a man who trekked through the hamlets and villages and towns of this land educating his people on the many ways in which they could preserve their self-esteem.
Today, as we observe once more the great martyrdom of the Father of the Nation and of his family, it is for us to dedicate ourselves once again to the humanistic ideas of political liberalism and secular democracy he espoused in his long struggle for the attainment of Bengali rights. Those ideas were under assault by his enemies, who were therefore our enemies, after his death. They are under assault again today from those who would push this country down the road to disaster on the evil strength of religious fanaticism. It is therefore only right that we take upon ourselves the arduous and necessary responsibility of beating back these new agents of darkness decisively and for all time if we mean to restore Bangabandhu’s noble principles in our national life. This morning, Bangabandhu is not with us and yet he has never left us. Greatness is a tale written in the language of permanence. And greatness was – and will always remain – around the towering Bengalee that was Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
