Untold Facts

Bribing ‘Free Press’ by the PM Sheikh Hasina at whose Cost?

Propaganda Unleashed
A prestigious English weekly on the 28th August had a credible report published in its column that stated with facts that the PM Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh got this year on the 15th August as many as 93 ‘Supplements’ published in as many dailies etc. for eulogizing her late lamented father who fell on the 15th August 1975. The other part of the news item stated very accurately that out of the 93 media clients only 20 had implemented the Wage Board Award (WBA) for their employed journalists, the rest did not that fail to qualify such units for any government funding assistance. By doing the act she has overstepped, if not violated the norms and legal limits, for spending public fund in the matter.

Intimidation by GOURI SEN
Was that her personal generosity that exceeded even number of supplements she had 82 published on the 1996 Independence Day that in a way meant she has put more importance to the memory of her fallen father who fell from the State power in a jubilant and victorious coup that clearly implied further that even the independence of the country was less important to her. Why? Who would pay the bill? Would she pay from her own private purse and not from the public exchequer? What else could be the reason for the razzmatazz? Was it for psychological intimidation of the judges of the Appeal Division of the Supreme Court that is soon to start hearing the case pending in the matter?

Interfering Again
The question and apprehension of intimidating the judges by the top bosses of the party now in the State power of Bangladesh looms large in the minds not only of the people concerned in the matter but also all who care for and duly expect a fair justice done in the hearing. Because, in the past when the case of the so-called trial for ‘murder’ went through three stages in courts and 12 convicted to death sentence, the due process had in all stages been interfered with by the same lots during 1996-2001 term of the same Prime Minister that made clear miscarriage of justice. That the few put to dock had been escape goats is not been still talked about by highly placed outsider and retired judges of the government but also by insiders as the Awami League M.P. Sheikh Selim has lately been saying in public and repeating in medias indicting the then Army Chief General Shafiullah and some others. Curiously enough when M.P. Selim raised questions of making escape goats in the matter, the technocrat Law Minister Shafiq Ahmad on the 15th August amused his party followers by publicly announcing that they would ‘celebrate’ the hanging of the ‘killers’ of ‘Bangabandhu’ very soon! How could a man trained in law make such a loose and silly observation in the matter that is strictly legal and under trial? Is he ignorant that in such case, even the ‘benefit of doubt’ may acquit any death convict? Albeit, being a technocrat minister, he is fortunate to be free from any accountability to the people, not even to the electorate.

Rogue
There is more crucial national concern involved. Her father naturally as her father is an angel to her, but not to millions other, even to some, unfortunately, a notoriously controversial leader of the Bangladesh history. There is at least no consensus on the unanimous respectable status of her father but a leader of variety of ROGUE just as to quote the term I leant from the late great man Akhtar Hamid Khan of the world renowned Comilla Model of Cooperatives.

2009 is not pre 15th August 1975
Bangladesh as in 2009 does not go with Hasina’s father and his evil legacies of autocracy, one party dictatorship, extended dynastic evil, oppressive rule perpetrated by the unconstitutional killer RAKHSI BAHINI but after mid August 1975 by pluralism, multiparty democracy, free press, freedom for all law abiding citizens that had been ensured through the fall of the controversial figure and Hasina’s father on the very jubilant day. Thus punishing in any form the heroes of the 15th August 1975 would only bring an end to freedom and pluralism for the dreaded period of the BAKSAL of Hessian’s father!

‘Mess of pottage’
Lovers of freedom and free press, it is expected, would not be bedeviled by the little ‘mess of pottage’ Hasina intended to give to some preferred media in publishing the 93 supplements on the 15th August 2009.

Author: M.T. Hussain

RAW, Secession and Independence of Bangladesh

New yet old story
Nothing new in the fact that the Indian central intelligence agency, R&AW had plan for secession of East Pakistan from the day one of 1947 but also that Bangladesh came into being as the essential by product of the design. A US NGO report has only now in August 2009, too late if not too little, made the fact public in their document. Those who are already aware of the R&AW’s machination in early 1950s and 1960s as there are in Jyoto Sengupta’s memoirs (A History of Freedom Movement of Bangladesh 1947-73: Some Involvement, 1973) and Ashok Raina’s documentary evidences (Inside RAW) had no surprise in the matter that David Miller Smith made on the 24th August 2009 a three-page item I have received from the internet.

Bengal Muslims
If one would honestly recall the background history and movement of the Bengal Muslims during the colonial British period it would really appear to be a matter of surprise that the people who popularly supported the Muslim League since almost about the inception in 1906 and overwhelmingly voted for one Pakistan in the 1946 general election could have gone all the way out for secession from Pakistan and seriously sought for independent Bangladesh just after 24 years in 1971. Five years back in September 1965 when Pakistan-India war broke out, and I was then posted at Rangpur district town about 200 miles north west of Dhaka, teaching in a college there, I recall thousands in that small district town thronged into the streets to cheer up the EPR (East Pakistan Rifles) and the Pakistan Army units posted in the locality to ‘crush India’ at the war. Did I see anything wrong of the people’s sentiment against Indian aggression or were the people wrong about their sentiment for Pakistan’s unity and integrity? The 1971 26th March army Operation Searchlight changed no doubt many calculations, but was that deep enough to bring secession and cut Pakistan to size for ensuring all strategic benefits to the regional Indian power? Was there no scope to look for dignified and respectful way out except secession?

Why not all Bengalis?
Some other relevant questions could also be raised. Indians had been eager to get Bengalis of East Pakistan in 1971 freedom from Pakistan; very lofty proposition indeed, and a pious wish of them. Why could not they have had even before 1971 the same pious wish for freedom of the Kashmiris who have been brutally enchained against their free will by Delhi’s occupation armed force for over six decades now figuring about half a million and since 1947? How about the independence struggle of the people of the so known ‘seven sisters’ of the eastern India who remained close to and neighbor of former East Pakistan and now Bangladesh? Why can’t Delhi let the 80 million Bengalis of West Bengal and Tripura living adjacent to Bangladesh territory could go off its control and suzerainty to form together still greater Bengali State of about 230 million people with Bangladesh after 1971? I am sure, Delhi had no easy, much less satisfactory answer to all the questions above, and so they cannot rationalize secession of East Pakistan in 1971. That means the R&AW and Delhi had other rotten rats in the bag.

RAW in FAS’s findings
Possibly the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), established in 1945 and having had its wide- ranging members of high credentials including members from among 45 Nobel Laureate cannot be given a dam to the RAW involvement in the secession of East Pakistan since 1947. That is however not to suggest that thousands of sincere and dedicated Bengali freedom fighters had no mean contribution in snatching independence of Bangladesh in 1971. Even so, say for example, foreign dignitaries like US Senator Ted Kennedy, etc. who among the rare Americans supported the Bangladesh movement in 1971 against his country’s policy not to support secession need be seen in still wider context.

Exuberant and yet immoral Kennedy
By the way, Kennedy coming of a political family had been an exuberant Democratic Party youth of 39 years in 1971. He was well known to be licentious as many of the Democrats used to be. He was warned several times by police for fast driving quite possibly under alcohol. In moral turpitude he was a close friend of such elements. Though free sex and alcoholism are no public crime so long those remained indoors, but other moral turpitude could have been with these vices. Once in 1969 he had a young girl with him at a nightclub, possibly drank heavily, and then driving himself to their destination. Unfortunately, the car met an accident he was driving when the car overturned and fell in a water pool by the road from a small bridge on the road. He swam across from inside the car, went away caring nothing for the girl (Possibly call girl), not even informed the police to rescue her from the drowned car. That incident should speak well about the standard of his morality and ethics. Exuberance for a subject matter and feeling for a great humanitarian cause in association with high morality and ethics are different matters.

Akhanda Bharat
Coming back to the main theme and concentrating in deeper aspect of the subject, irrespective of what other parties contemplated, India went absolutely ahead with her own design that she set right in 1947 just as Pandit Nehru made clear in May 1947 in a letter addressed to one of the Congress leader Ashrafuddin Chowdhury of Comilla. He stated clearly in the letter addressed to him dated 23 May that they had accepted the condition of partition of India (and for founding Pakistan) for the time being as a strategy for ‘reuniting once again India sooner than latter’ (See, Rajdrohi Ashrafuddin Chowdhury by his son Jamaluddin Chowdhury). If one would recall further the first spontaneous response of the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on the 16th December 1971 announcing the defeat of Pakistan Army to the Indian victorious Army General Arora, ‘HAME HAJAAR SHALO KA BADLA LE LIA’ (we have taken the historic revenge of one thousand years)! Revenge of Delhi against Pakistan alone? Revenge for whose freedom? Bengalis freedom? Why not for the Bengalis of West Bengal and Tripura along with Bengalis of Bangladesh?

Weaker Pakistan
It is true that for the R&AW’s success Pakistan has been weakened after 1971 that emboldened India more than ever before 1971. Even so, there is some competition for rivalry at least in possession of nuclear arms by both Pakistan and India. How does Bangladesh fare in this matter? Not even a nuclear power station!

Unequal and subservient
That Bangladesh does not fare equal with India is a fact of reality. In addition, Delhi had imposed whatever they wished against Dhaka ranging from the Constitution tailored to their need and goal for AKHANDA BHARAT or reunited India to complementary and supplementary economy, to subservient foreign relations, to educational and cultural policies, to internal security and even in matters of national secrets, if there is any. The 25 year treaty Bangladesh made in Dhaka on the 19th March was clearly a treaty of subservience, particularly by the power of the clauses 8, 9 and 10 (though it lapsed in 1997, the hangover remains in other areas like the 30 year treaty for water sharing and the CHT treaty of gross inequity among citizens of the same country and locality). The vulnerability of maritime boundary with the neighbors, inefficient border protection, control of water flows at the upstream of the 54 rivers by India at their free will and causing all disadvantages to Bangladesh remained as Achilles Heel of Bangladesh making independence a play toy in the hand of Delhi so much so that more of the capable ministers like AMA Muhith made on the 18th August a frank but guarded remark, “The sovereignty of the nation is limited now due to different reasons” (The weekly Holiday, 29 August 2009). Unfortunately he did not elaborate or had to guard his job by not elaborating and indict the R&AW and Delhi.

15th August 1975 gains now lost
Some patriots, particularly in the Army, who having had discovered the mockery made a decisive blow and ousted the puppet government on The 15th August 1975, because the game of secession had no clear sanction of the people but engineered and well managed by the R&AW. Unfortunately, the gains accrued were almost all lost and brought the R&AW once again in to the driving position so much so that many sensible men and women consider the High Commissioner of Delhi now in Dhaka in full control of internal affairs of Bangladesh since January 2009.

Affluent few and millions have not
Well, in the kind of independence a microscopic minority have thrived but the main slogan for the masses in millions for emancipation remain a matter of illusion in the last four decades so much so that nearly half of the 150 million live under the extreme poverty line. And if the domination of Delhi and the policy of Akhanda Bharat of the RAM RAJ or caste ridden division between man and man continues to be operative, the R&AW would continue to keep its hold for such perpetual discrimination, and so would continue to remain illusive the real freedom for all in Bangladesh.

Author: Dr.M.T.Hussain

August 15 in Perspective

Bangladesh Awami League and its followers observed the Mourning day on August 15 this year with the aura and fanfare never seen before. Arches with the inscription ‘kando bangali kando’ (cry Bengalis cry) seen everywhere while Sheikh Mujib’s edited version of March 7 speech was continually playing to deafening sounds. Electronic and print media was abuzz with stories of Sheikh Mujib as if to indicate that God made only one worthy man in this land. Cries for hanging the ‘killers’ of Sheikh Mujib was louder than ever.

To keep the heat on, the Supreme Court has fixed October 5, 2009 to start hearing of the appeals submitted by a few accused in the trial of the murder of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The appealing accuseds are rotting in the Dhaka jail for over 13 years.

It was, however, difficult to gauge how much of that showcase was real and how much to please the power that be. Vast majority of these very people welcomed the August 15, 1975 political change and few felt the necessity to even utter ‘Innalillah……when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman died. They did not protest, nor did they arrange a token resistance against the killing of their ‘man-god’ of today—not then, not in the next 20 plus years.

It reminds me of the story of Rip Van Winkle who was in deep slumber and found everything new and changed when he woke up 20 years later. The neo-RVWs of Bangladesh discovered that there was no history, no geography, no policy, no administration, no legislature (even though AL was represented in it) and no law for 26 years (21 plus 5 of BNP-Jamaat’s rule). They only saw the golden periods of Awami rule in 1972-75 and 1996-2001. And today, they think they carry the mandate, with 48% managed votes, to change and re-write everything. They have a handy parliament with brute majority and a sympathetic, if not partisan, legal machinery to follow through.

Backtrack

From 1975 to 1996, the day passed without much fanfare. Sheikh Hasina Wazed, the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and her Awami League never included the issue of the ‘trial’ for the ‘killing’ of Mujib in any of their election agendas. Nevertheless, after Sheikh Hasina became PM in 1996 with a helping hand from former dictator Ershad, she declared August 15 the Mourning Day and initiated the ‘trial of the murder’ of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the constitutional Indemnity Act 1975 notwithstanding. 11 former army officers are facing gallows as a result of that trial.

When BNP led 4-party alliance formed government in 2001, the Mourning Day was cancelled. We came to learn that the day is also the birthday of Begum Khaleda Zia, Chairperson of BNP. The AL led 14-party Mohajote was installed to authority through a managed election by a Gang of Four (Moeen-Fakhuddin-Shamsul Huda-Mashud) and the day became Mourning Day again. At the same time, the Supreme Court ordered that the declaration of independence made by Major Ziaur Rahman in Chittagong on March 27, 1971 and heard by millions was invalid. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman should have that credit whether he declared or not.

The late politician Khan Ataur Rahman said that August 15, 1975 was a Day of Deliverance. Noted historian Prof. K Ali agreed. He said in his book ‘Bangladesh: A New Nation’, “Friday the 15th of August (1975) was in fact a day of deliverance for the people of Bangladesh since it signaled the end of an unpopular, weak and client regime which proved itself a great failure to guide the destiny of the nation towards its cherished goal.”

Renewed Bangabandhuization

The ball of a renewed “Bangabandhuization” was set in motion by our ‘patriot’ and self promoted general from day one of 1/11. He did not miss a chance to publicly voice his admiration of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and preference for the party (AL) he founded, ignoring military codes of conduct. The media, for whatever reason, have been having field days on the theme too, receiving booster shots from time to time from the authority that be. Hardly a day passed when the Awami League and its media empire did not have anything to crow about Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Great. The AL and its supporters are in a hurry to establish the ‘name, fame and image’ of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in a way that future administrations do not dare to change.

It is not to undermine the importance of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Undoubtedly, he was one of the great leaders this land had produced. But, I am not sure how far it can be justified to give him the title “Sharbakaler Sharbosreshtho Bangali” based on a localized and selected group survey? (Remember how Sheikh Mujib received the title “Bangabandhu”? Ask Tofail Ahmed, one time stalwart of the AL). What about Subhas Bose, Maulana Bhasani, A K Fazlul Haq, Suhrawardy, Tajuddin, Ziaur Rahman and others? Have we evaluated them in correct perspective, stepping outside the partisan box? History and geography of this subcontinent would perhaps have been different if Subhas Bose did not meet his fate in the air accident in1945, or if Sher-e-Banla’s “Independent States” in the Pakistan Resolution in 1940 was not changed for the convenience of non-Bengali Muslim leaders in India. If our leaders were united behind Bhasani’s “As-Salamualikum” program since 1957, and if Suhrawardy’s Assam-Bengal formula was successful, there would have been a different fate for the Bengalis. History can not also ignore the leadership provided by Tajuddin Ahmed during our difficult liberation war and the importance of the declaration of independence made by Ziaur Rahman on March 27, 1971, either in his own name or in the name of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Few leaders in history could command so much love and respect as he did on January 10, 1972, the day he returned to independent Bangladesh from Pakistani custody. People of Bangladesh prayed and fasted when he went abroad for treatment. They accepted when he said that he would not be able to give them anything for 3 years. Then why Sheikh Mujib failed to deliver what he had been promising to the people all these years?

Bangladesh had plentiful of international goodwill and support from the start of its independence war. Support of the Bengalis and non-Bengalis abroad, particularly in the UK was overwhelming. Though the US was hobnobbing with Pakistan in 1971, its people in general extended support and raised fund for Bangladesh.

K Ali gave Sheikh Mujib a few credits, particularly in the diplomatic arena. By 1974, 131 countries recognized Bangladesh, it became member of the Commonwealth, non-aligned group of countries, the Organization of Islamic Conference and the United Nations. Constitution was framed within the shortest possible time and election was held under the new constitution in early 1973. It had its own airlines, shipping corporation, seaports and waterways were cleared of the junks and debris within a year. K Ali says, “The beginning was not bad. The people were also ready to allow him more time considering the hard fact that it was not an easy task to build a war-torn country.”

However, for the people it was a never ending wait. Months and years went by, yet no succor came, nor rescue extended. They were sinking deeper and deeper in the gutter of abyss.

The Period of 1972-75

Bangladesh had experienced one of the worst floods in 1974, followed by a widespread famine. There was no dearth of relief materials, even from Saudi Arabia and China who did not recognize Bangladesh until after August 15, 1975. These relief materials did not reach the needy. They were used for political purpose or sold in the black markets, some even across the border. Half a million people died in that ‘man-made famine’, as termed by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and others.

Those who lived in Bangladesh then can recall the scenario vividly–the influx of a sea of creatures called human being that carpeted the city of Dhaka at night, begged door to door for a scoop of rice waste (Bhater Mar) and struggled with dogs for eatables in the garbage at day times.

The common man still shudder at the thought of the killing and atrocities committed by the Rakkhi Bahini. ASM Abdur Rob claimed that over 40 thousand of his workers were killed by the Awami Baksali forces. According to the late Enayetullah Khan of Holiday, 35 thousand political opponents were eliminated during Sheikh Mujib’s time. Dr. Aftab Ahmed of Dhaka University said in a seminar that nearly 42,000 political activists killed and about 86,000 jailed between 1972 to 1975 (The Daily Star Nov 1998). Sheikh Mujib himself bragged in the Parliament, “Kothay akhon Siraj Sikdar (Where do you think Siraj Sikdar is now)?” in an apparent admission to the killing.

These are no stories or inventions. Please dig into the archives of the Haq Katha of Maulana Bhasani, the weekly Holiday, the Jonkantha and a few others, who dared to publish some filtered news of the miseries and sufferings of the common people of the time. Those who have access to foreign media can open the pages of NY Times of December13, 24, 1974 and January 26, 1975, as well as the Washington Post of November 8, 1974. Many other international electronic and print media would have sufficient material to prove that I was not talking of myths.

K Ali says, “The independence which came through tears, toil and blood seemed to the people sour, distasteful and useless.” He further added, Sheikh Mujib’s “failure to solve the problems gave rise to a sense of frustration in his mind. People also began to doubt his ability and sincerity. For the first time Sheikh Mujib became self-centered. The educated section knew the real merit of Sheikh Mujib………..love for power has made Sheikh Mujib a different man.”

Noted Indian journalist and writer Kuswant Singh wrote in the Illustrated Weekly of India, “In 1970 he was the most-loved man by his people and million of others in India and elsewhere. Within a couple of years he had lost much of his charisma and lived in a cocoon of self-spun esteem. He came to regard honest critics as traitors and sycophants as loyal friends. It was a classic case of folio de grandeur. He was blissfully unaware that the very people who called him ‘Bangabandhu’ or ‘Bangapita’ to his face were behind his back called him ‘Banga-Shatru’”.

Could a Massacre be Avoided?

Some people tried to justify that March 7 speech was good enough an independence declaration of Bangladesh by Sheikh Mujib and he did not have to give a separate one on March 25, 1971. But on a closer look, “Ebarer sangram muktir sangram, ebarer sangram swadhinatar sangram” was not a declaration of independence. If that was the declaration of independence, why would Mujib go to negotiate with the Pakistani leaders from March 15-24, 1971? There was no room to deal with them after what Mujib expounded on March 7. The plane and ship loads of troops and weapons landing at Bangladesh airport and seaports were no secret. Bengali officers in Chittagong warned Sheikh Mujib of the ominous developments and an ensuing plan to annihilate the Bengalis. Yet, he went on with the parlay at Bangabhaban with Yahya-Bhutto gang. This gives many to believe that either Sheikh Mujib was not ready for the independence or he did not want the independence at all; he was rather fighting for the autonomy of East Pakistan.

A right decision at right moment could perhaps save the Bengalis from a wholesale massacre on March 25, 1971 and afterwards.

Missteps?

When things were going out of control, Mujib clamped emergency in 1974, under which fundamental rights were suspended, all but 4 government controlled newspapers were closed and political activities banned.

In January 1975, Shiekh Mujib made himself president, amending the constitution to a presidential form in a few minutes without allowing any discussion or dissenting vote.

Immediately afterwards, he re-designated Awami League as Bangladesh Krisak Sramik Awami League (BAKSAL) and banned all other political parties. In this Soviet-China style one-party system, military and bureaucracy were formally politicized by asking them to join the BAKSAL.

The country was divided into 61 districts with BAKSAL appointed governors and political secretaries in each. They were to take post on September 1, 1975.

Again to quote K Ali on Sheikh Mujib, “He was out and out a despotic ruler and snatched away fundamental rights of the people by introducing absolute dictatorship under one-party system—-there was hardly any doubt that the measure (one-party rule) was taken only to establish his permanent rule in the country without any opposition.”

In an article “Repeal of Indemnity (Act 1975)—in Whose Interest” published in the Daily Inquilab on November 1, 1991, M M Aziz briefly detailed the background of August 15, 1975 coup, as well as what would have been the likely scenario in the country had there not been August 15 action. According to him, groaning under a suffocating situation people desperately wanted a change and August 15 coup was the only way possible to bail the nation out under the existing situation.

Re-investigate August 15, 1975

Awami League MP Sheikh Selim recently called for a full investigation into the murder of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He particularly blamed then army chief Safiullah, deputy chief Ziaur Rahman, army chief of general staff Brigadier Khaled Mosharraf and Dhaka brigade commander Colonel Shafaat Jamil for their complicity in the coup of August 15, 1975.

I think it was a right call and the August 15, 1975 coup should be re-investigated and the nation be told of the correct picture of the time and responsibility should be apportioned to all concerned, including Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, if any.

Author: AO Chowdhury NY, USA

‘ALL BNP’s Grenades’!

Nonsense
The Prime Minister of Bangladesh stated on the 21st August in a public meeting that all grenade attacks so far made were all done by the BNP! None of the sensible men and women would believe the rash statement of Sheikh Hasina, but her HUKKA HUA (the Bengali term coined first for them by BBC’s Serajur Rahman and then lifted by me) followers might do otherwise. That is what she wishes of those gullible to do, not for any substance in the content but for obvious show down against the BNP in the street of the genre of the 2006 October 28.

Use and misuse
Possession and use of arms at random and at will are exclusive privilege of the cadres of all parties concerned almost without exception, some more and some less, that became widespread since after 1971. The 1971 war opened the door for possession and use of arms by youths, first in the independence war and then after the 16th December, in particular, for self-aggrandizement and private material gains.

Ultras
Political divisions that almost ended after March 1971 except few splinter groups of ultra left led by Toaha, Abdul Haq, Matin, Seraj Sikder etc. took not long to resurface among the students based in Dhaka University and to the formation of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) in mid 1972. Although these elements fought united in 1971, soon after the formation of the JSD, they started to meet in encounters with the government forces whoever tried to contain them. In fact, the first post independence government (1972-mid 1975) had nothing of higher ideal to keep the youths in constructive calm and peace. They were massively unemployed, and so grabbed whatever they could lay their hands on irrespective of law, morality, ethics and values.

Partisan control
The government had only one mode of control not of the arms cadre of the ruling party but of the imagined opponents alone by using force of arms- police, BDR, Army and above all the unconstitutional killer force, RAKHSI Bahini. Other modes of peaceful socialization and control like education, schooling, and fair social work had all broken down in lawlessness and anarchy, on one side, and looting of public property by the ruling party cadres, on the other. The snapping of the corrupt and inefficient government on the 15th August 1975 by the successful army coup worked as wonders for containment of the bullies and anarchists of various persuasions. Comparatively peaceful scenario stayed for years into the early 1980s that started to break down once again as soon as General Ershad took over as a usurper in early 1982. It is well known that Ershad raised and promoted the bullies and terrorists that Hasina had her active associate role in that evil business of raising and sustaining terrorists for their own power base. The same scenario has once gain appeared here in Bangladesh from almost the day one of 2009 well manifested by the terrorists of party cares in government tender snatching of millions of Taka, rent seeking in million Taka figures, market syndicating and terrorizing and killing at random of all imagined and real political opponents.

Godfathers made
Earlier during her first term (1996-2001) Hasina raised her bullies and terrorists so much in huge number that she publicly asked in boast those bullies to go on killing the opponents at the rate of ten of the opponents for one of them if killed. Obviously they were all trained terrorists armed with almost all kinds of arsenals, grenades not being unusual. People still clearly dread the names of godfather terrorists like Feni’s Joyanal Hazari, Narayangnj’s Shamim Osman, Noakhali’s Abu Taher, Nurul Islam, etc. and of their terrorist use of huge arsenals including grenades. Justice Abdul Bari (Retired) as one man enquiry committee constituted later on by the government had some findings in 2005 of some bomb and grenade attacks at UDICHI function in Jessore, Ramna Batamul New Bengali Year’s celebration in Dhaka etc. during the first term of Hasina that found her not clean in those attacks but some clandestine indirect involvement.

Porous border
Grenades are not very big size arms. They are smuggled in through porous border into Bangladesh from India, particularly through the CHT areas. The ones more favored, as smugglers are those of the Awami League variety for Hasina is the most favored by Delhi/Kolkata/India.

Extremists
There are other extremist groups whose target is the Awami League Chief for her role in appeasement of India and of opposition to Islam. Use of grenades by these groups against Hasina may not be anything unusual.

Making enemies
Hasina is well known for making new enemies for she is very much unguarded in her deliberations. They may range from extreme left to extreme right. How come then that the BNP alone is her enemy?

Hidden agenda
But her blaming the BNP summarily may well have hidden agenda, that being her immediate plan to contain and crush the BNP not only through rousing irrational and undemocratic sentiments of her gullible followers but also for total subjugation of all opponent political groups, BNP being the main target, into one party dictatorship of the BAKSAL her father arrogantly did caring nothing for democratic aspirations of the people in early 1975.

Concern
There are many advisers Hasina maintains, and none like me should advise her in any matter. Even so, any patriotic citizen cannot but have own serious thinking about any important matter of the country. That is what democracy as well demands.

Provide positive motivation
There is no short cut to containing terrorism and terrorists in Bangladesh. The terrorists operating internally have their close operational links with many groups of similar persuasions from the other side of the border. Training and supply of arms are done not only inside remote areas of Bangladesh but also in similar areas in the neighboring regions and countries. Further, it is a fact that the groups operating are not simple rent seeking terrorists but politically motivated extremist, as well. Such political extremist cannot be easily contained unless they are given options for political programs. Unemployed lots without any serious political motivation can be provided with new job opportunities preferably at their own places through banking assistance and innovative productive local initiatives.

Give productive job
Hasina promised in her election manifesto to provide at least one job to one member of each family in the country. The task is not that mean one but a nearly impossible big exercise. Not only this. The government to be credible must maintain minimum neutrality of political affiliations for job creation and employment for the worthy ones alone. Should they fail in this effort, it would only be counter productive and useless to blame the BNP for all grenade attacks in the country.

Author: Dr.M.T. Hussain

Embarrassment for Truth

Facing truth alone!
A press report published in a Dhaka daily on the 23 August (09) stated, “They (Pakistan) could naturally be embarrassed with our initiatives (but) the indication of maturity lies with the attitude of facing the truth with courage.” The quote so made was an obvious reference to the issue of ‘Trial of War Criminals of 1971.’ Some other dailies as well covered the news item with the same content

Senior citizen’s concern
As a member of senior citizens of Bangladesh in mid 70s and a leg in the grave, I should have nothing in response to the news item. Even so, I felt that as the matter is concerned with ‘facing the truth’ and I being a living witness to many of the related truths, may not let the subject pass without anything of my in response.

Why not Cr.P.C.?
First, we may take the specific question of crimes committed and the perpetrators of any specific crime. The 1973 crimes tribunal act known to be ‘amended in 2009’ and passed in the Parliament specified a few crimes in violation of human rights in 1971 in Bangladesh. Essentially they are not different from the original one enacted in 1973 involving looting, arson, rape and killing of innocent citizens. Well, these are criminal offences nothing to be condoned, and may well be tried as such under the age old Cr.P.C. Why should then be a Special Tribunal constituted for the trial?

Truth and fallacies
Well, it is well known that though there was and is a hype of independence war in 1971 the truth was that the period of nine months from March to December happened to be a period of civil war so far as all authentic international documentary evidences were concerned. The episode was further well known as the secessionist war waged by some people’s representatives of the then East Pakistan, not even majority, much less all, and in the absence of any clear cut UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence) of the top leader who is documentarily recorded as had been having rapport with the Central Government of Pakistan in Islamabad for political power sharing (See, Impact International, London, 1987, Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan, 1993, Sarder M Chowdhury, The Ultimate Crime, 1999, etc.). Even if one would not believe this opinion, one can hardly escape the fact that it was civil war period for the people of the same country fought between themselves, one against the other, one group for independent Bangladesh and the other for saving Pakistan from dismemberment, and the dismemberment of the country having had armed intervention from the number one enemy since after 1947. The two groups had rogues on both sides and so they violated human rights of some of the opposite camps in the engagements. Which rogues would now be put to trial? Only the pro-Pakistanis of 1971? Why not the others?

Srilanka: both were perpetrators
Srilanka had a long civil war for 26 years that ended in May this year that cost human lives of nearly 76,000, apart from huge violation of human rights of even larger count of innocent people. When the war ended the winning side of Rajapakse wished to put the Tamil secessionists to trial for human rights violations, but the UN, the Human Rights Watch etc. humanitarian bodies stated clearly of their factual findings that both sides had violated human rights, and so both genres of perpetrators must be put to trial.

No reliable enumeration of truth
As there had not been any reliable enumeration for the violation of human rights and killings of innocent people in the then East Pakistan/Bangladesh as yet inside the country, not such anything done by Pakistan as well. The so called 3 million figure for those killed in 1971 has no basis whatsoever except obtained from the heaven of Moscow for use as propaganda rhetoric since early 1972. Even if the figure is taken to be a fact, what were the specific divisions of their ethnic figures? Bengalis, Biharis, Punjabis, Pathans, tribals?
However, some authentic enumerations have later on been made, two based in the USA and one based in India. None of them had figure of killed more than 300,000, one tenth of 3 million. The interesting common finding they all had that the pro-Pakistanis killed by the pro-Bangladeshis surpassed the figure of pro-Bangladeshis killed by pro- Pakistanis (See, Sisson and Rose, Harvard, 1990, Small and Singer, New York, 1982 and Sharmila Bose, India, 2005). Some eyewitness account of the non-Bengalis killed in thousands and in gruesome ways in 1971 has lately been recorded by Advocate Saad Ahmad (2006) and quoted by F.M. Kamal (London, 2009).

Other relevant truths
If one would relevantly look into other facts of the early 1970s, one may well recall that Major Zia’s declaration of independence on the 26th/27 March 1971 did in no way made Bangladesh legal so far as De Jure legitimacy was concerned. Well, De facto Bangladesh came into being on the 16th December immediately after surrender of the Pakistan Eastern Command to Indian Army General Arora. But the necessary De Jure legitimacy lacked. One incident in record was that as long as after over two years of de Facto Bangladesh, Algerian President Boumedine though dashed at the Tejgaon Air port (Dhaka) he did not touch the soil of Bangladesh but stayed in his own plane for the Bangladesh top leader then saddled in power rushed to the plane to accompany him to Lahore for attending the OIC conference for seeking formal recognition by Pakistan or De Jure founding of Bangladesh outside the frame work of federal Pakistan. Until then Pakistan government had no scope to recognize Bangladesh not only for internal pressure but also for lot of pressures of other powerful countries including China, Saudi Arabia, etc. for reasons of their own and for real Indian total hegemony in active operation against the entity of Bangladesh. I knew of many expatriates East Pakistanis seized as late as in early 1974 the London Pakistan High Commission campus for withholding recognition of Bangladesh for they detested secession. They could have been some eccentrics, but they were not ignorant that the East Bengal Muslims for obvious historical reasons had the largest dedicated contribution in terms of free and fair vote casting in 1946 general election in founding Pakistan in 1947 that they could hardly forget about in midst of huge follies of the political leaders in about 23 years.

Pawns of one set alone?
The real truth about 1971, to make the long story short, was that both groups had some rogues who committed wrong and so the rogues of both sides not though without belief in their own cause, not excluding the failed liabilities of the political leaders concerned on to the account. Why must then the pawns alone of one genre, not all other, put to the dock?
One would, however, reasonably make a hunch that such one sided propaganda orchestrated as facts may not help either party but the enemies from within and without.

Author: Dr.M.T.Hussain

No time like Ramadan time

No time like Ramadan time
‘Golden Hours on angel wings’

Soon, once again, the blessed month of Ramadan will be with us; once again, like ‘golden hours on angel wings’, will descend upon us its blessed moments. Like every other year since Hijrah, it will summon Muslims, as individuals and as a corporate body, to an intense and sustained life of Fasting and Prayer, of worship and obedience, of devotion and discipline — all centered on the Quran which, too, was sent down in these very moments in the custody of ‘noble and trustworthy’ angels. Call will go forth to every believer to take to prolonged companionship with the Book of God. To a life of redoubled endeavor to become what God desires Muslims to be. Ramadan bids our hearts and minds, our society and polity, to come to.

Joyfully and dutifully the Muslims will respond. Every day will be spent in Fasting: from dawn to sunset, for one whole month, not a morsel of food, nor a drop of water, indeed nothing shall pass down the throat; nor will sex be indulged in. Each night. hours will be devoted to standing in Prayers before Allah, reciting and reading His words as sent down in the Quran. During the day, too, reading the holy text will be a cherished business.

Fasting, in one form or another, has always been an important and often necessary part of religious life, discipline and experience in every faith. As a means par excellence to come nearer to God, to discipline the self, to develop the strength to overcome the temptations of flesh, it needs no emphasis. Yet Islam turns Fasting, as it does every other act of worship and devotion, into something different and unique, the life-giving centre of life.

How does it impart new meaning and force to Fasting?

Put simply: by prescribing for it the time of Ramadan. This may sound like making things too simplistic, or trivializing the important. But Ramadan is no trivial event. For it is the month ‘in which was sent down the Quran: the Guidance for mankind, with manifest truths of guidance and the Criterion [by which to judge the true and the false’ (Al-Baqarah 2:185). It was on a night in Ramadan that the last Divine message began to come down: ‘Read in the name of your Lord…’ (Al-’Alaq 96:1). That is why you must fast in Ramadan, says the Quran.

Ramadan therefore centers the entire discipline of Fasting on the Quran. The sole purpose is to prepare us for receiving the Divine guidance, for living the Quran, for witnessing the Truth and Justice that it perfects, for striving to make the word of God supreme.

How is this purpose achieved?

The fruit of Fasting ought to be that rich inner and moral quality which the Quran calls taqwa. ‘Ordained for you is Fasting . . . so that you might develop taqwa’ (2:183). The most basic condition for being guided by the God, too, is taqwa. The significance is plain to see. Fasting, linked to Ramadan in which Allah’s guidance came down, generates a taqwa which becomes directed on the supreme goal of entering the world of the Quran and of living therein, instead of being a spiritual ecstasy to be frittered away in the delights of soul. It becomes the key with which can be unlocked all the doors leading to the blessings which the Quran has to offer; honour, prosperity and freedom from fear and anxiety in this-world; success, Paradise and God’s good pleasure in the life-to-come. No time for Fasting other than Ramadan could have made taqwa such a potent force.

More importantly, the fulfillment of being guided by the Quran comes about when we strive to discharge the mission it entrusts to us. For, having the Book of God — a weighty word — places on our shoulders a heavy responsibility: to hear is to make it heard, to know is to act, to have is to share, to say shahadah is to do shahadah. This means an unflinching pursuit to create a new self within us, and to create a new world of Quranic ideals outside us.

This is the sole purpose for which a new Ummah was created and charged with the mission of bringing man to God by witnessing to His guidance, ‘so that you be witnesses unto mankind, and the Messenger be witness unto you’ (Al-Baqarah 2: 143). Otherwise, when the Quran came, the world was not devoid of godly men who fasted, and stood in prayers before God, and wept.

Discharging that mission requires immense inner and moral resources like knowledge of and devotion to the Quran, strong faith (Iman), resolve and steadfastness (sabr). For it is no light task. Few have a full and clear understanding of what it means. Let us pause here and reflect why, otherwise we shall never grasp what the Ramadan Fasting is for and what it achieves.

When in Ramadan the first ray of Divine revelation reached the Prophet, blessings and peace be on him, in Hira, its message of Iqra was impregnated with world-shaking forces; he, therefore. trembled. The second revelation made things clear: ‘arise and warn; make the greatness of your Lord the greatest’ (Al-Muddaththir 74:2-3); he, then, took up his task with a single-minded dedication, and encountered stiff opposition. For, the call to ‘let God be the Greatest’ (fakabbir) implied that all false claiments — and every claimant is false — to greatness, to unlimited power, authority and lordship over men and things, to obedience, loyalty and servitude from God’s creatures be challenged, and dethroned.

This, it is not difficult to see, requires supreme sacrifices in ‘giving up’ (Hijrah) everything one loves and fighting with all that one possesses for the sake of that love of Allah which must be greater than all else (Al-Baqarah 2:165). A life of Jihad therefore necessarily requires important qualities: knowledge of and devotion to the Quran, deep and strong faith (Iman), resolve and steadfastness (sabr), total trust (tawakkul) and, of course, taqwa. Read the Quran and you will find every promise of success here and in the Hereafter conditional upon these qualities.

Fasting, combined with the Quran recital in night-prayers, generates these rich resources which Ramadan harnesses to the fulfilment of the Quranic mission.

First, look at taqwa. What is it? Literally it means saving ourselves from harm. In moral life, therefore, taqwa must primarily mean. firstly, accepting that some actions and beliefs are harmful, that is to say, right and wrong do exist, and secondly, having the resolve and will to avoid the wrong and do the right. As a consequence, thirdly, his conduct should reflect this consciousness and resolve, if he is not a hypocrite.

To have the Quranic taqwa, which will entitle us to its guidance, we must know that there are realities and values beyond matter, beyond what we are incapable of perceiving by our physical senses, beyond this world, that man needs to be guided to what is right and what is wrong, (yu’minuna bil- ghayb). We should also be prepared to submit, willingly, all that we possess — mind, body, wealth — to the truth that we know and believe (yuqimunas salata wa mimma razaqnahum yunfiqun).

Every moment in Ramadan engraves these lessons on our hearts. Integrates them in our practice. The most elementary physical needs — food and water and sleep — are readily and joyfully sacrificed. Hunger and thirst are no more harmful; God’s displeasure is. Physical pleasures no more hold any lure; God’s rewards do. The scale of values is turned upside down. The measure of comfort and pain, success and failure is radically changed. Without this change, none is entitled to take up Allah’s cause.

To the uninitiated, or an outsider, the devotional regimen of Ramadan may appear harsh and austere, but, in fact, it is eagerly awaited by believers. The sighting of new moon, the crescent that signals the beginning of Ramadan is met with celebrations and jubilation. Even children — who are not required to fast — look forward to their first experience of Ramadan fasting. The sick, too, remain restless for having been deprived of this blessing. Such jubilation and eagerness, to sacrifice time, wealth, and life in submitting to whatever God asks of us, and a regret and sorrow if prevented from doing so for reasons beyond our control, is highly desirable in the way of Allah.

These qualities spring from genuine faith in heart. For a Muslim the fast is primarily a commandment to his person, though its collective aspect is no less important. Little wonder, then, that individuals gladly take on the tribulations of Ramadan as an expression of their faith. Just as Fast is something special between man and his God which only He can reward, so should we take Jihad to be.

Whatever the physical discomfort, the mortification of flesh is certainly not a desired object in Islam. The gifts of God are there to be enjoyed, but the limits by Him must also be strictly observed — that is another lesson of taqwa in Ramadan. As the sun sets, the fast must be broken, and sooner the better. All that became forbidden at His command, becomes permissible, again at His command.

Similarly eating before dawn is strongly urged, even though the hour is unearthly. For it provides the necessary strength for the rigors of the day ahead. Fasting and praying are obvious acts of worship, but eating, drinking and sleeping, too, constitute forms of worship. So in the way of Allah: what matters is His command, the whole life must witness to Him.

The month-long regimen of dawn-to-sunset abstinence from food, drink and sex, for the sake of Allah alone, internalizes the lesson that one must never touch, acquire or enter that which does not belong to one under the law of God. A man can no more remain a slave to his own self-indulgence as he prepares for the arduous journey on the road to his Lord.

For many it is difficult to see the value of long hours of hunger, thirst and sleeplessness. Productivity losses are difficult to accept in an age that has tried to make gods of gross national product and economic growth. According to Islam, however, man is created to live a life of total submission to the One and Only God, and this purpose must be paramount in all scales of values. Ramadan fasting is crucial to this understanding. It shows that its purpose, like God’s guidance through His Prophets and Books and all other rituals of worship, is to train the believer in how he must live totally and unreservedly, at all costs, in submission to God.

Obedience, let there be no misunderstanding. is not limited to mere outward conformity with the letter of law. The law must be observed, but evil, in all its forms, must be eschewed. lbn Maja the great Hadith scholar, reports that the Prophet said: When the month of Ramadan arrives, the gates of Paradise are flung open while those of Hell are closed. All the shayatin (satans) are put in chains and a herald cries out. ‘O you who seek good come here and those who desire evil desist’.

Imam Bukhari, the most renowned Hadith scholar narrates: Eyes should refrain from seeing evil, ears from hearing evil, heart from reflecting evil, tongue from speaking evil. The Prophet said: ‘One who does not give up speaking false words and acting by them is not required by God that he give up only his food and drink.’ On another occasion he said: ‘Many are the observers of fast who gain nothing from their fast but hunger and thirst’ (Darimi).

As a collective experience Ramadan suffuses the entire life of communities with the spirit of taqwa ; even the air, it seems, is changed with a new fervor. In Ramadan we can see a beautiful example of how Islam unites the individual and the society under the sovereignty of One Lord alone.

In Ramadan, therefore, the demands of Allah take precedence over all other demands; no part of personality, no aspect of our life remains outside His writ, even aspects as mundane as timings for eating and going to bed. Thus, will is strengthened, determination is reinforced, spirit of sacrifice is intensified, self-control is heightened.

But, above all, the life in Ramadan revolves, as it must, round the Quran which, as the Word of God, must become the core of all devotional activities. At least one reading of Quran is a required duty during nightly Prayers, after the ‘Isha.’ But it ought to be extensively recited both within and without ritual prayers. Ramadan is not only the annual celebration of the coming down of the Quran by disciplining every moment of life into surrender of God, it is also the occasion for heart and mind to get absorbed in its words and teachings.

Closely linked to fasting is the nightly prayer. Sleep is deliberately avoided to enter into communion with God’s words, to prostrate before Him, and thus to move nearer to Him. It is during the quiet and calm of the night that we can dwell upon God’s words, and the truths which might otherwise elude us can be grasped.

No time is like the Ramadan time. For in it lies that night which is ‘better than a thousand months’, the ‘Night of Destiny … in it the angels and the Spirit descend’ (Al­Qadr 97:1-4). It is ‘that blessed night in which was made distinct everything wise’ and ‘a warning’ and a ‘mercy’ was sent down which God has always sent for mankind (Al­Dukhan 44: 3-6).

That is why the Fasting is placed in Ramadan. In this technological age, when clock has become the only measure of time and every concept of sacredness of time has been erased from human memory, some may find it difficult to visualize how every moment of Ramadan encompasses centuries in it, how it allows us to draw nearer to God at a much faster pace. Acts of virtue during the month are especially rewarded; an obligatory act (fard) increases seventy times; a voluntary one (nafl) is rewarded like the obligatory. Each of its moments offers immense possibility of great spiritual journeys. As the poet Iqbal said:

Far though the valley of love may be,

a long and terrible way,

The path of a hundred years may be

traveled at times in a sigh.

If Ramadan is blessed because the Quran began to come down in this month; it is blessed, too, because the Quran triumphed in this month. The Quran is the al-­Furqan (criterion by which to judge the truth and the falsehood); in Ramadan falls that day which the Quran calls the Yawmul Furqan, Day of Criterion, on which the truth and the falsehood were judged, and the Truth triumphed. That was the Day of Badr, when the Prophet, blessings and peace be on him, beseeched God for help and victory thus: O God if this group perishes today, You will not be worshipped any more’ (Ibn Ishaq). This was both a petition and a pledge; an expression of the final goal of all of his strivings, and of what our lives ought to be devoted to. Only an inattentive mind can ignore the significant link between al-Furqan descending in Ramadan. and Yaum al-Furqan falling in Ramadan.

Thus, to come back to the center: Ramadan reminds us of our mission, the only purpose of our existence as Muslims. It prepares us to discharge that mission; it deepens our consciousness, brings us closer to Quran and the Prophet, blessings and peace be on him, strengthens our resolve, schools us to taqwa and patience.

The end of Ramadan brings Eid-al-Fitr. the feast of the breaking of the fast, which celebrates the revelation of the Quran. The Quran makes it clear: ‘that you complete the number, and proclaim the greatness of God for His having guided you, and that you render your thanks’ (2:185). Man’s response to the Divine initiative of guidance must be gratitude and extolling Him as the Greatest. That is why constantly on lip is the tasbih: Allahuakbar. . . walillahil-Hamd.

Even so, the heart still remembers wistfully the trying days and the silent, busy nights when the soul was engulfed in a dawn of light and cries out:

Stand still, you ever moving

sphere of heaven,

That time may cease, and

midnight never come.

Author: Khurram Murad

Geographical Helplessness!

Inferiority due to Encirclement by India!
The pity is that so far in the last four decades the governments of Bangladesh with rare exception at times miserably failed to rise psychologically above the feelings of inferiority, vulnerability and helplessness for geographical containment of Bangladesh by India. The government now in power since January 2009 has been reminding the people repeatedly that Bangladesh must accept whatever India prescribes for everything internally and externally. That is why they are giving India the transit through the territory of Bangladesh, yielding the three CHT districts to the tribal people alone in exclusion of all other citizens in India’s terms of pleasure, permitting India to have the Tipaimukh Dam in detriment of the water system and ecology of one fourth of Bangladesh just as earlier in 1997 gave India for 30 years the inequitable share of water of the Ganges/Padma river upstream, turning the BDR ineffectual than before by first intimidating and then killing about six dozen brilliant senior army officers in an orchestrated mayhem soon after the government saddled them in power in January 2009 that certainly looks like helping India possibly to turn the Bangladesh national army to be subservient and fully loyal to India. The conspicuous hush ups in the matter of the BDR massacre of 25-26 February 2009 (See M. Joynal Abedin, BDR Massacre, July 2009, London) by the present government is no mean task in finishing up the self-confident army that is now seen to be followed by dismissing senior and efficient top army officers, on the one hand, and re-appointing already retired lots having proven allegiance both to the government and India, on the other! In the machination of the CHANAKYA’s theory and Macaulay’s curriculum prescriptions of ‘secularism’ that this government has been in action programs to isolate the otherwise monotheist spiritual nation drawing enough psychological utilities in the face of scarce mundane items now in short supply at increasing rate than any time ever before particularly the youths essentially towards atheism.

Is it realistic in the context of world power rivalry around the region and elsewhere that the geographical helplessness of Bangladesh almost fully encircled by India obviously made it so? Must not Bangladesh look beyond that it is also a fact of situational reality that there are many such smaller countries in other continents that do not fare geographically better than the position of Bangladesh? Nascent capability and inherent united power of the people can make wonders in such situation.

Vulnerable since Birth
It’s one hundred percent true that smaller Bangladesh is encircled by much bigger India both in land and water geographical fronts. The real position remains so vulnerable since the days of 1947 partition of the British Indian empire and independence of India and Pakistan as two separate independent countries. For over two decades though Pakistan stayed divided into two distant wings separated by Indian territories in between, and also that Pakistan was smaller in size than India in all aspects, there was at least a psychological power balance in the region for they represented two peoples competing here for at least a millennium. The 1971 war and the founding of Bangladesh in the territory of East Pakistan disturbed the balance that favored India enormously on the one hand and Pakistan weaker than before, and Bangladesh the weakest of the three. The post 1971 vulnerability and helplessness had been so acute that even the international telephone system of Bangladesh was kept operative via Delhi that the post August 1975 coup government of Khondoker Moustaque Ahmad claimed to have had snapped and reinstalled the line via Singapore. The helplessness perceived in reality that a fiery left politician in late 1960 and now a minister in the cabinet in Bengali verbatim stated during closing days of Pakistan period, ‘SHIALER MUKH THEKE MURGI BACHATE GIE JENO AMORA BAGHER MUKHE NA PORI’ (Lest not we are grabbed by a Tiger while trying to save a live chicken from the mouth of a jackal).

Severance from Indianization on the August 15 of 1975
In post independence Bangladesh the first government due to its sole dependence in the 1971 war of independence on India including the armed intervention of the Indian Army, Delhi continued to plan and dictate all basic policies and administration of Bangladesh by their renowned bureaucrats and professional intelligence personalities like D.P. Dhar, General Ovan etc. The Constitution was tailored to suit Delhi’s goal in the region. Prescription for economy was given to stay as complementary and supplementary to India’s much bigger economy. Education and culture was redesigned to conform to total ‘Indianisation’ (see Indian leading theoretician Balraj Modak for definition of the term Indianization) of the psyche of the younger generation. Bangladesh had little option for foreign policy of its own and so was the defense policy just only to suit Delhi’s AKHAND BHARAT design and hegemony in the region. The 25-year unequal treaty of 1972 bonded Bangladesh to all helplessness. The cumulative effect was that independent Bangladesh soon turned into Bottomless Basket Case from the position of its firmly stable economy in pre 1971 days so much so that corrupt ridden or man made famines of the ruling class then in 1974 (Amartya Sen) cost lives of vulnerable thousands, if not lakhs. It was the obvious and decisive armed coup of the 15th August 1975 that the inefficient, public property grabbers and corrupt government’s top boss was toppled that caused some shivering in much bigger India by the historic action of tiny and vulnerable Bangladesh yet confident enough against persistent hegemony of Delhi.

Confidence built up and then shattered
The post coup governments though had been shaky in fear of the possible armed intervention from Delhi, friends like China, Saudi Arabia, etc kept Delhi in check. That followed gaining confidence for some years. The 1982 army coup led by General Ershad, however, took the position of Bangladesh once again to the 1972-75 periods. His period of illegitimate rule until 1990 ended in promise for regaining national confidence during the subsequent nationalist government. But Delhi was not at rest and looked for opportune time for imposing control once again as they did during 1996-2001 and in a much bigger way since January 2009 now not only threatening the nation with brute majority but also in all pervading fascist modes and actions across the country.

The Need is the Post 15th August determination
What needed essentially are the self confident and spiritually motivated nationalist forces of the highest qualities just as of the 15th August 1975 and of the immediate post that only could free the country from Delhi’s hegemony and ‘radar control’ for their GREAT GAME in the region. Otherwise, Bangladesh can hardly be expected to free herself from the helplessness it owed to its birth in facing with the much bigger India. In the mean time, however, the lackeys of Delhi and the well-known Fifth Columnist in their desperate bid to hold on to the power at the behest of Delhi may go all their way out for fascist attacks against the nationalist forces and political witch-hunting of all opposition elements. That on going real helplessness is to be redressed now by rock solid unity of all patriotic people.

Author: M.T. Hussain

15th August 1975: Not Shying Away Courageously

Exception SQ Chowdhury
It was an exception and the only exception as I watched the issue for about two decades among the ‘nationalist’ politicians of Bangladesh not opted to shy away but blasted the real truth about the 15th August occurrence of 1975 in Dhaka about obvious political shake up and changes from autocratic lone party BAKSAL to multiparty democracy, from choked one to press freedom etc. effected on the day and immediately afterwards. Possibly as it was very much appropriate for the courageous and outspoken Parliamentarian Mr. Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, M.P. just as a retired justice of the High Court phoned to me up on the 18th August praising him for being outspoken and not shying away like all others on the issue commenting ‘worthy son of the worthy father’.

AL’s Vicious Attitudes
The vicious propaganda offensives launched by the present Awami League Government against the popularly supported 15th August coup in association of the fascist intimidation by their bullies have kept all right thinking people in check if not blinded them altogether. Mr. Chowdhury, as the press report stated, has already been variously attacked in fascist way; his effigy burnt by a rowdy group in Dhaka, another in Khulna lodged a ‘criminal’ and defamation case against him for exposing the real truth unpalatable to the propagandist party in power and a minister of the present cabinet went on his all way out in rebuke of normal decency in a virulent way. Some one told me that such attacks have already made him the hero for exposing the real truth at this time. I am certain that the patriots and lovers of real truth behind the 15th August coup must be with Mr. Chowdhury.

Probe the 15th August Rationale
What was the 15th August? What the prelude to and the sort of spontaneous people’s jubilation on the day as the news of the historic event spread among the people? Why was no resistance whatsoever against the man god who enjoyed huge popularity only years back? Could Bangladesh get rid of the absolute dictatorship of the notorious lone party BAKSAL and since then enjoy fruits of multi party democracy for 34 years now had there been no 15th August? Could the people enjoy basic freedoms, much less press freedom? Could Bangladesh be free from the total clutch in matters of economy, politics and culture of the big neighbor? Could Bangladesh assert her own sovereignty with self- confidence? Could the Bangladesh army built its confident structure or else would it be devoured by the Indian sponsored and controlled killer Para-military force euphemistically termed as the RAKHHI Bahini? Was there any option left for Bangladesh or to be exact of the patriotic armed forces except the 15th August 1975 armed coup d’etat?

BAKSAL’s Notoriety
In 1975 as soon as the lone party BAKSAL was arbitrarily launched in January by the one time champion leader of democracy people had no illusion about recovery of pluralism and multiparty democracy in normal peaceful democratic way. The patriotic army of the country realized the harsh truth along with the common aspirations of the people. A valiant determined group of them took arms in hand and won the fight in the early morning hours of the 15th August 1975 thus toppling the notorious dictator from the State power of Bangladesh following a brief encounter

Jubilation and Support
The news of the dictator’s fall spread like wild fires. People jubilantly came out in support of the victorious coup at home and abroad alike. Even the foreign big powers like China, Saudi Arabia, etc who until then did not recognize Bangladesh as independent country outside Pakistan framework came in open not only recognizing the country but also in aid whatever was required. All internal State organs came in total allegiance of the post coup revolutionary government of Khondoker Moustaque Ahmad thus formalizing the continuity of the State and the Government. How could now in 2009 any question be asked for legitimacy of the post coup government, much less of the legitimacy of the coup proper?

Coup’s Achievements
The coup followed logically restoration of multi party democratic government, press freedom, internal integration of sovereignty, disbanding killer RAKHHI Bahini and all such essential reorganization of the country that lacked during the period of 1972-mid 1975 and kept the country in reality a vassal of India.

Automatic Indemnity
Victorious army coup by itself is a source of lawfully legitimate change of government. The coup in reference had further legitimacy for the fallen leader lost all moral basis of authority for he arbitrarily imposed BAKSAL in January 1975 and closed all avenues for peaceful and democratic change of the government.

Must not Shy Away
Any prudent and experience social thinker can well reflect back that the sort of ‘nationalist’ politics emerged in Bangladesh was the direct result and corollary consequences of the 15th August coup. Unfortunately the beneficiaries have shied away from this truth so far. Mr. Chowdhury has opened the gate for all to come forward to speak the truth in the matter and the honest nationalists should follow him right now in the matter.

Author: M.T. Hussain

Candle Light Delight Offence!

A news item published verbatim in Bengali in a Dhaka daily on the 17th August (09) that in English translation can be accurately said that a renowned Barrister of Dhaka should be immediately arrested and prosecuted in the court of law by the present government of Awami League for his ‘offence’ for celebrating in his own home the 15th August 1975 fall of the then Government head of Bangladesh with candle light delight.

I understand that there are at least two notorious legal instruments in force in Bangladesh, the Cr. P.C. 54 and the 1974 Special Powers Act of 1974 that may be used by the police for arrest and detention for months of any imaginary accused even without any warrant of arrest.

Be they as may be used for arrest, detention and punishment for the ‘offence’ of making the indoor delight of personal freedom by the particular person for the fall of the top of the government on the morning of 15 August 1975 in Dhaka, how would the authorities now deal with the millions inside the country and outside who jubilantly celebrated the same incident on that very day?

On the very day I stayed in London and had many experience of jubilant celebrations by the expatriate Bangladeshis there. One such that I watched in the BBC TV, particularly, at the 13 hour news there that many jubilant and yet furious Bangladeshis torpedoed the Bangladesh High Commission office at the 28 Queens Gate and desecrated the portrait of the then head of the government, that is, the fallen leader of the 15th August. Those among I knew is now a practicing Barrister in the Bangladesh High Court. He happened to be a dedicated freedom fighter of 1971 as well then based in London who had donated his car in London for the movement. Would not the government prosecute him as well for his offence was certainly of higher degree of cognition than the candle delight indoor?

In retrospect, informed men and women would recall that the celebration of delight was so universal that none recited even the INNA LILLAH, the mandatory recitation for all Muslims. Thus it is only logical that should the particular Barrister be prosecuted for the ‘offence’, the millions who jubilantly celebrated the incident of the 15th August 1975 must all be prosecuted just only to overfill the prisons of Bangladesh. Is not it?

Author: M.T. Hussain

Intimidating the Judges: Keeping up their Evil Tradition

SHUVOBUDHHI
A verbatim statement in Bengali language of a powerful minister and government party stalwart published in a Dhaka daily on the 16th August (09) said, ‘ASHA KORI BICHAROKDER SHUVABUDHHIR UDAI HOBE’ (the judges would have right sense of knowledge for delivering justice). He was clearly and pointedly referring to the Supreme Court Bench under constitution at this time for hearing appeal in the 15th August 1975 case.

Judges are not populist politicians
Judges of the higher courts, in particular, are not only learned men and women in law but also having had long experience in the legal profession and in delivering justice. However, they are not practicing populist politicians banking on cheap slogans or hearsay but are solely guided by documented legal maxims, codes, due process of law and above all their legal mind and conscience. Thus politicians’ populist rhetoric may or may not fully fit into the ‘right sense of knowledge’ of the highly learned judges, and so the minister’s SHUVABUDHHI may not go in full agreement of the judges in the particular appeal hearing. And if that does not, what the minister and his government would do? A right answer to this question may be had in their black and disgraceful illegal tradition they had set in in the same case during 1996-2001.

Not Killers
If one may recall back, one must discover rightly that the case in question was a concocted one as it was the case of a successful army coup associated with some unfortunate blood letting not of one but of both sides and thus was not any of cognizable offence in law. Because, army coup that does not fail but succeeds is itself a legal mode for change of hands of government. Blood letting in any such victorious coup is automatically indemnified. That was what it had been the 15th August 1975 coup of Dhaka. The ‘murder’ case so framed up after 21 years in late 1996 failed to meet legal basis as it cancelled through simple majority vote not through two third as it constitutionally needed for the matter being part of the 5th Amendment of the Constitution. Thus the case had gross lapses ab initio. The case then went on to three levels having had not only the basic lapse but also bypassed the fundamental issue that it happened to be a matter not of failed but of victorious coup that in itself by law remained automatically indemnified. Further that the coup provided legal basis for future enactment of laws and amendment of the State Constitution just as the 5th Amendment came to be enacted in April 1979.

Miscarriage of Justice
That the net and final verdict in the case so far until 2000 giving death sentence to 12 of the accused among 15 of the death sentence passed ‘in firing squad’ in the first session judge court in November 1998 were all nothing but gross miscarriage of justice leading to judicial murder of the victorious coup makers had been rightly commented upon so by at least three judges of the higher courts of the country, two of the High Court (daily Independent, Dhaka, 26 March 2002, and daily Amardesh etc, Dhaka, 16 August 2008) including a former chief justice in 2001 in an interview with the British BBC Bengali Radio Service on the 26th march 2001.

Gladly Accepted and Allegiance given
It is well known further that the coup had no resistance at all but instead enjoyed jubilant support of the people for they felt relieved and due allegiance of all the State organs soon after the coup succeeded in mid August 1975. The outside world and big powers like China, Saudi Arabia etc who did not even recognize Bangladesh before the coup in over three and a half years came in support after according recognition and in assistance of the post coup government of Khondoker Moustaque Ahmad.

Legitimacy and Continuity
How could one legitimize the continuance of Bangladesh since mid August 1975 for about 35 years now if the coup is now termed and adjudged a simple murder case and the coup operators put to gallows? Sheikh Hasina as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh in her first term (1996-2001) started the silly case that would have no end in itself but to possible return to the 1975 January vicious dictatorial political scenario of the BAKSAL of her late lamented father Sheikh Mujib who unleashed reign of terror through extra-judicial killing of innocent thousands (one for example, Seraj Sikder of Sarbahara Party killed on the 2nd January 1975 that the topmost leader boasted for openly in the floor of the Parliament) perpetrated by the unconstitutional and India sponsored killer RAKHI BAHINI now being orchestrating to bury once again the multi-party democracy and pluralism for which the people had long fought for and wished to enjoy in the society in perpetuity. Extra-judicial killings had also been perpetrated by private hoodlums led by the top leader’s own close relations as one, for example, the 23 September 1973 brutal killing of seven young students of the Dhaka University at the campus of the Mohsin Hall.

Who’s SHUVOBUDHHI?
She had all foolishness not only to lodge the ‘murder’ case but also in intimidating the judges of the courts during those five years well documented in the past before they offered verdict and again after the verdicts that partly was not up to their liking. One hears now the same intimidation tactics they began in the wake of beginning the hearing of the appeal in the Supreme Court. The party in power as it is there in the verbatim wished to have a verdict that they would love to hear from and that they would only then term such verdict as of the ‘SHUVOBUDHHI’ of the judges and not otherwise!

Author: Dr. M.T. Hussain