Birth Centenary of Bangabandhu today

In a joyous mood, the nation is celebrating the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman today.  At a late spring evening of March 17 in 1920, the famous Sheikh dynasty of the present district of Gopalganj was blessed with the birth of a baby boy named 'Khoka Babu'. 

He was the third among six offspring — two sons and four daughters — of his parents- Sheikh Lutfur Rahman and Sheikh Sayera Khatun. Khoka is a favorite name of Bengalis. Khoka became the maker of history, a country, a nation as well as an ideology. He was later dubbed as the Father of Bangladesh and the greatest Bengali of all time.

That man, the greatest Bengali of the millennium, hadn’t become “Friend of Bengali” overnight. Years of works have culminated and later been evaluated under the unforgiving magnifying glasses of history and Mujib has become Bangabandhu from Khoka in that process.

In celebration of the day, President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued separate messages paying profound respects to the memories of Bangabandhu and greeting the children.

On behalf of the president and the prime minister, wreaths will be placed at the mausoleum of Bangabandhu at Tungipara in Gopalganj in tomorrow morning. The theme of this year’s birthday of Bangabandhu and National Children’s Day is “Bangabandhur Janmadin, Shishur Ridoy Hok Rangin”. Special programme will be chalked out on the premises of Bangabandhu’s mausoleum in Tungipara.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will virtually join the programme from her official Ganabhaban residence at 10.30 am. State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Fazilatun Nessa Indira will join it as the special guest. Different competitions for children and cultural function will be held there. Fazilatun Nessa Indira on behalf of the prime minister will hand over awards among winners. Discussion, drawing and essay competitions, cultural functions will be held at district and upazila levels and different educational institutions.

The day is a public holiday 

National dailies will publish special supplements while Bangabandhu’s historic March 7 speech will be played and documentaries on Bangabandhu’s life and works and Liberation War will be screened throughout the week at upazila levels.

Key streets and important establishments will also be illuminated. Bangladesh Betar, Bangladesh Television and other private TV channels and radio stations will air special programmes highlighting the significance of the day.

Special discussion will be arranged on children’s health awareness, nutrition and foods. The ruling Awami League (AL) has drawn up elaborate programmes to celebrate the day.

The programmes include hoisting of the national and party flags atop all AL offices across the country including Bangabandhu Bhaban and AL’s Bangabandhu Avenue central office at 6:30 am on March 17, placing of wreaths at Bangabandhu’s portrait at 11.30 am.

A delegation of the party’s central working committee will pay homage to Bangabandhu by placing wreaths at his mausoleum at Tungipara in Gopalganj and join a doa mahfil there at 10am.

AL Presidium Members Lieutenant Colonel (retd) Muhammad Faruk Khan, Shajahan Khan and Jahangir Kabir Nanak, Joint General Secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim, Organizing Secretary SM Kamal Hossain, Labor and Manpower Affairs Secretary Habibur Rahman Siraj, Deputy Office Secretary Sayem Khan, Central Working Committee Members Anisur Rahman, Sahabuddin Faraji and Syed Abdul Awal Shamim will join the programmes at Tungipara.

The leaders of AL will join the programme of National Implementation Committee for Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Birth Centenary at the National Parade Square at 3.30pm.

Doa mahfil (special prayers) will be arranged at the mosques across the country including Baitul Mukarram National Mosque after Johr prayers.

Christian community members will arrange special prayers at Tejgaon Church at 8am and Mirpur Baptist Church (3/7-a Senpara Parbata, Mirpur-10) at 9am, Buddhist community members will hold prayers at International Buddhist Monastery at Merul Badda at 10am and Hindu community members will arrange prayers at Dhakeshwari National Temple at 11.30am.

Marking the birth anniversary of Bangabandhu, Awami League will hold a discussion at the party’s central office at Bangabandhu Avenue at 11am on March 21.

Awami League President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will chair the discussion through a videoconferencing from her official Ganabhaban residence.

Awami League General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader urged the leaders and workers of the party, its associate and like-minded bodies to celebrate the birth anniversary of Bangabandhu and National Children’s Day across the country with adherence to maintaining the health safety guidelines and other rules, set by the government.

The nation Bangladesh which once was devastated by drought, poverty, deprivation and storms now is in a golden line today.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had such kind of dream. With the dream of a nation free from exploitation, a democratic secular and sky-piercing pride of Bengali nationalism.

According to the theory of political science, a small country beside a big country is seldom independent. The only exception is Cuba. This tiny country lives in the heart of a huge America, but it lives with dignity without bowing its head. The only reason is that they had a leader Fidel Castro. We also got a leader like Castro. He is our Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. 

 “The greatest Bengali of the past thousand years, sculptor of Ban¬gladesh, Father of the Nation, and supreme com¬mander in-charge of the Liberation War” all this title was gained by him because of his work and his sacrifice. The main role behind the history of becoming Bangabandhu from Khoka is his invincible leadership, kindness and sacrifice for the people of Bangla.

Bangabandhu was imprisoned several times by the undemocratic and military regime of Pakistan. In his less than 50 years of life till the emergence of independent Bangladesh, he spent 4682 days or nearly 13 years in prison. But nothing could stop him. He was equally powerful a voice and leader even from within the prison. This mass-upsurge actually ousted the defamed Ayub’s resume.

His love for his people and people’s love for him were unparalleled in the history of Bengali nation. The even stronger Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was proudly and adorably given the title ‘Bangabandhu’ (Friend of Bengal) by the students, who spearheaded the mass movement in 1969 to free the leader of Bengalis from prison.

Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of the members of his family, except his two daughters, the current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana, were brutally assassinated under ploy of international imperialists and the local agents, like defeated force of 71’ war of liberation on August 15, 1975.

After the killing of the great leader of the nation, some culprits have tried to distort the actual history several times. But, there is no place for lies in history. So those culprits who tried to mislead the history have been thrown into the dustbin today automatically. And all the national leaders including the father of the nation have survived in the hearts of 170 million people in this country as Shaheed Minar or Mausoleum. They are immortal. They did not die. They all including Bangabandhu—the architect and the undisputed father of a nation will live forever not only in the history of Bangladesh but also in the history of the world.