Spread spirit of Ekushey to new generation: PM

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Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Saturday called upon all to spread the spirit of Immortal Ekushey to the new generation to enable them to further consolidate their mother tongue Bangla, reports BSS.
"All have the responsibilities to inform the next generation about the significance of the historic language movement and the necessity to further improve Bangla language and culture through continuous practice," she said.
The Prime Minister was addressing a function to distribute the prestigious Ekushey Award-2010 among the recipients at Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the city.
A total of 15 eminent personalities were given the award for their outstanding contribution to different fields of arts, culture, literature, language movement and social work.
Presided over by Information and Cultural Affairs Minister Abul Kalam Azad, State Minister for Cultural Affairs Promod Mankin addressed the function while Cabinet Secretary MA Aziz made concluding remarks.
Speaking on the occasion, Hasina said Bangla was the language of such a nation (the Bangalees), who had sacrificed huge blood to protect and enhance their own language creating a rare example in world history.
She said language and culture of a nation was the first to come under attack by those who wanted to destroy the nation. In this context, she said the then Pakistani rulers first had attacked our language in a bid to destroy the Bangalee nation.
"Bangla language had to face massive onslaughts during the regime of the then Pakistan," she said adding after that the whole Bangalee nation exploded to fulfil their demand to designate Bangla as the state language.
The Prime Minister said the great leader and Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as a leading member of "Bhasha Sangram Parishad" had played an important role in language movement, which was initiated on March 11, 1948.
Paying rich tribute to the martyrs of the country's language movement, Hasina said the nation had engaged in the War of Liberation and achieved victory in 1971 making great sacrifice through the path of language movement.
About February 21, she said it had now become a day of protecting all mother language of the world after the UN recognition of February 21 as the International Mother Language Day.
The Prime Minister said that her previous government had taken all out measurers to get UN recognition of February 21 as the International Mother Language Day and thus it had become a day of protecting mother language specially the indigenous ones.
The Prime Minister said her government would take further steps to make the people of the UN member states understand how the brave Bangalee nation could sacrifice their lives for the cause of their mother tongue.
"We will compile the history of our great language movement and send those to the UN member states," she added.
In this context, she mentioned that Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had addressed the UN General Assembly in Bangla and demanded that it be recognised as one of the official languages of the UN.
In continuation of the process, she said that she had also addressed the UN General Assembly last year in Bangla where she had also demanded that Bangla be declared as one of the official languages of the UN.
Pointing to the awarded personalities getting the Ekushey Padak, she said this rare honour had given a new height to our responsibility to play a leading role in flourishing Bangla language, literature and culture across the world.
She expressed the hope that the country's intellectuals including poets, academics, artistes, novelists and writers would work together for further enhancing Bangla language at home and abroad.
Earlier, the Prime Minister handed over "Ekushey Padak" to the recipients and to the members of the families who got the award posthumously.
Chief Justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim, ministers, members of parliament (MPs), educationists, diplomats, cultural personalities, eminent citizens, artistes, litterateurs and high civil and military officers were present on the occasion.
This year, 15 personalities have been given the prestigious Ekushey Award- 2010 for their outstanding contribution to art and culture, literature, education, journalism, research, fine arts, social work and the language movement.
Each of the recipients was given Tk 100,000, a three-vori gold medal and a citation.
The recipients are Dr Golam Mawla (posthumously-Language Movement), poet Mohammad Rafique (Literature), Syed Ahmed (posthumously - Literature), Ms Helena Khan (Literature), Dr Muntasir Uddin Khan Mamun (Muntasir Mamun) (research), ASHK Sadique (posthumously), Sangharaj Jyotipal Mohathero (posthumously) and AKM Hanif (Hanif Sangket) (social work), Partho Protim Majumder (mime), Nasir Uddin Yusuf (drama), AKM Abdur Rouf (posthumously) and Imdad Hossain (art), Ahmed Imtiaz Bulbul (composer), Begum Laila Hasan (dance) and photo journalist Mohammad Alam (posthumously-journalism).