A veteran Bhashani follower, Momtaz Chowdhury, invited me to attend as guest speaker in the discussion meeting to observe the 46th martyrdom anniversary of Shaheed Asad at conference lounge of National Press Club on January 20, 2015, which I accepted. I found a human chain formed at its gate by ruling party supporters on the 15th day of blockade. What we suffer is confrontational politics causing deaths and injuries to commoners, reported by media. There is no responsible human democratic response from leaderships. Civil society and foreign funded NGOs, a post-Bangladesh phenomenon, stand divided with no moral impact. Why so and what our history says are points to ponder.
As I spoke the close association with my junior friend, ever smiling, simple and patriotic Asaduzzaman came to mind. He was an East Pakistan Students Union (EPSU) leader; introduced to us by its past president Mohiuddin Ahmed towards the end of 1960s to 'Paltan-Stadium Group' of Dhaka University 1961 batch and associates. Asad was involved in peasants' movement with a vow to be in democratic politics of regional autonomy to greater Bengal as geographical imperative under the leadership of Bhashani. He was so polite and listened to our conversations, moderated by learned uncle Hyder, a brother lawyer of my father Advocate Muezzul Islam, a voracious reader who found pleasure to talk to young generation after leaving law practice and party politics for obvious reasons. He used to recite what Rabindranath Tagore wrote about Bengali character, which is Bengalis are not human beings! Our coordinator of the Group Md Abdul Mannan, an ardent social worker without an eye to publicity, now an adviser in an enterprise of Diabetic Association of Bangladesh, which he has been serving since its inception in East Pakistan remembers those events vividly.
Asad was the product of sound academic, cultural and democratic movement of his time, an enabling environment of clean politics. It took us to recall serene academic atmosphere and democratic pursuits we had during our student life, as a resident student of SM Hall during 1957-61, which he got in the following years. There was complete harmony, cultural activities and competitiveness among students' organizations countrywide, participating in annual elections to College Unions and University Hall Unions and Central Students Union such as DUCSU. The students were under the guidance of Provosts and House Tutors; no teachers, colour, party politics whatsoever. There was no outside influence and no students' organization was front of any political party causing campus crisis, session jam etc. The senior-junior relationship among students was one of respect and affection, which set the tone of discipline.
After student life we joined service/profession, met every evening to exchange views on current affairs including ideological politics till 1970, which came to be known 'Paltan-Stadium Group', participated in programs, paid monthly subscriptions to those full timers of National Awami Party (NAP). After emergence of Bangladesh when those contacts were to be strengthened for flourishing democracy, rule of law, economic development and good governance, nobody cared for that. It is because Bengali elites are egocentric!
The second Indo-Pak war 1965 on Kashmir changed political landscape, disrupting socio-political stability in East Pakistan. Defence of Pakistan Rules brought in Enemy property ordinance, which was not withdrawn after war like India, enabling the anti-social elements to fish in troubled waters. It is still in force under vested property. There was sense of insecurity among East Pakistanis for lack of defence.
Sheikh Mujib put forward 6-point demand in 1966. He started publicity campaign which was marked by speech, arrest, release and re-arrest. In 1968 Agartala conspiracy case was framed against 35 persons including some Bengali army and civil officers. Sheikh Mujib was drawn to the case later. At the Paltan public meeting Bhashani termed 'Agartala conspiracy' baseless and false.
It led to mass uprising with the martyrdom of Asad in January 1969. President Ayub withdrew Agartala conspiracy case. General Yahya Khan promulgated martial law and declared legal framework order (LFO), under which December 7, 1970 was fixed for national elections. Bhashani called for election boycott. Awami League secured a landslide victory in East Pakistan securing 167 seats out of 169 in National Assembly and 305 seats out of 310 in Provincial Assembly.  Â
Instead of transferring power to majority leader as per democratic practice, Yahya-Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto conspired which led to 9-month-long bloody liberation struggle by people against Pakistani occupation forces and emergence of sovereign Bangladesh on December 16, 1971. It was supported by India, as Bengalis fled there in refugee camps. Mujib was arrested on the dreadful night of March 25, 1971 in Dhaka. He was released from Pakistan jail on January 8, 1972, returned home on January 10 and became Prime Minister of Bangladesh on January 11.
With all these historic successes and sacrifices of millions, Bangladesh leaderships failed to maintain democratic trend and step to exploitation-free society to meet the expectations of people. Rather corruption, power hunger became the order of the day. There are allegations of election rigging, politicization of administration and Election Commission, which was unknown before.
A learned woman politician logically spoke about sociological implications of current political stalemate. It is not justified to make two ladies - Sheikh Hasina, President of Awami League (AL), and Khaleda Zia, Chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), responsible for all that has been happening since 1991 by turn without taking into cognizance beneficiaries of both parties into consideration. Ours is a patriarchal society with all the limitations a woman faces. They're surrounded by family members, selfish coterie, retired bureaucracy and partisan university teachers. Sheikh Hasina after the killing of her father and Begum Zia after the killing of her husband were brought to politics to head the respective parties, as then male leadership failed to elect one and also felt safe to remain under them to be leaders to enjoy power and pelf. How to come out of it, that's the question. Reference to Asad and history can be an aid in seeking answer, to which attention of international community may be drawn.
The writer is an economist, advocate and columnist. E-mail: mqislambd@
hotmail.com
Observance of Shaheed Asad Day vis-à-vis Bangladesh today
Muhammad Quamrul Islam | Published: January 31, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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