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Grim days of 1971

31 October 2005, 18:00 PM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
By Meghodut, Dhaka
31 October 2005, 18:00 PM
I thought I would never favour them with our attention. These are the GYAN PAPI s who, time and again, sabotaged our heroic struggles against all sorts of tyrannies, oppressions and brute repressions from the time of Mir Jafar. My simple question to them is, where have they been during our nation's most grim days of 1971? Had they been anywhere near our War of Independence, they would have known what price we paid to earn those lofty ideals : Democracy, Nationalism, Socialism and Secularism. These are the ideals for which millions of our brave sons shed their lives and succeeded in setting them as our national ideals and aspirations. None has the right to challenge this as long as one claims to be a citizen of Bangladesh. The conspirators and the backdoor-mongers, taking advantage of the cowardly assassination of our great leader Bangabandhu, have broken the heart of our nation, the Constitution of 1972 and introduced all the irrelevant words with the ulterior motive of turning the nation subservient to the interests of their masters. But despite all the failures and lapses, we can take pride in our brilliant success of having frustrated the cherished dreams of those traitors, even in the absence of Bangabandhu, Tajuddin Ahmed, Capt. Monsur Ali, Nazrul Islam etc. Without even knowing well what BAKSAL really meant and what it aspired to achieve, some individuals have embarked upon crying for democracy. They do not even know what an excellent form of democracy BAKSAL had proposed. That would have been the best form of democracy for the toiling masses. A democracy where the government would not sponsor any particular individual. There would be no Godfather!

None need be apologetic about BAKSAL. We of course firmly uphold BAKSAL as a concept. Yes, there were errors in implementing the programme due to various reasons. Bangabandhu was no super-being. He was entitled to making mistakes. But it would be a blatant lie to state that he imposed BAKSAL without the consent of the Nation. The proposal was discussed in depth for two full days in the National Parliament and later overwhelmingly voted for adoption. All the existing political parties at the time were warmly invited to participate in the programme and Most did. But those who opposed it were not persecuted or harmed in any manner, Col. Osmani, for example. That was the nature of Bangabandhu's BAKSAL.

Our country is now passing through the most difficult period of its history. The so called Islamists have declared a war on our freedom, culture and the values with the vile design of setting up a Taliban style regime. The government in power is behind the ugly forces, providing the much needed shelter and publicity. It is no easy task to resist and foil the well organised conspiracies of the evil cult. Though I am no fan of Sheikh Hasina, I with all eagerness to find an alternative, find that there is none other than Sheikh Hasina who could unite and assume the leadership of the combined progressive forces to spearhead a successful mass movement to return the country to its original track, where all conflicting patriotic forces would be able to resolve their differences in peace and without fear. Anticipating the emergence of a powerful combined resistance under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina, the enemies of freedom and Bengalee nationalism have begun a smear campaign against the progressive political parties like AL, Workers Party, JSD etc., and the politicians in general. We must not be swayed away by the cheap slogans and ill-motivated publicity of these enemies of our independence and culture.

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