Is Dhaka determined to deny its history, abuse its founding fathers and replace Bengali nationalism with Islamic Bangladesh? Will it achieve these targets by joining hands with Pakistan, the country against which it waged a war in which about three lakh people were killed, one crore people were made homeless and thousands of women were raped? Will it bury Bengali nationalism in this process and replace it with radical Islam?
Bangladesh At Crossroads
Bangladesh is at a crossroads. Chief Advisor to the interim government, Muhammad Yunus made his intention clear once again on Monday. Breaking away from history, he indicated that Bangladesh has taken a new turn.
Addressing the nation after paying tributes to the martyrs while celebrating the 54th Victory Day, which led to the independence of the country from Pakistan in 1971, the Nobel laureate delivered a speech, in which he did not say a single word about Sheikh Mujibur Rehaa man.
Will Bangladesh Wipe Out Sheikh Mujib’s Legacy?
It was Sheikh Mujib who set up Awami League to protest against what he called Pakistani occupation, organised guerilla army called the Mukti Bahini, that fought the war along with the Indian Army and defeated the Pakistan Army. However, the Bangladesh government head did not take the name of Sheikh Mujib at the victory day celebrations.
The Nobel laureate used this opportunity to slam Mujib’s daughter Sheikh Hasina instead as he called her government the “world’s worst autocratic government”.
Sheikh Hasina fled Bangladesh and took refuge in India on August 5, 2024, after thousands of people took to the streets protesting against the reservation quota, stormed her official residence and looted almost everything.
Hasina later claimed that there was a plan to kill her and her sister as her father and most of the family members, including her 10-year-old brother Russel were assassinated in a coup on August 15, 1975.
Bangabandhu Memorial Museum Set On Fire
However, the political observers are not shocked at the development. Thousands of the marauding people put the Bangladesh Liberation Museum in Dhaka on fire, gutted it completely and vandalised the statues and paintings of Shekih Mujib.
Jamaat-e-Islami Makes Deep Inroads
Most of these people were not students, they were supposed to be members of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh. Political analysts also believe the student movement was hijacked by the Islamic outfit. The student movement itself was spearheaded by Jamaat’s student wing Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir.
The Islamic student outfit has made deep inroads and established itself in almost all universities across the country. Dhaka University, once the hotbed of Bengali Nationalism and the place from where the liberation war began, has become the centre of the Chhatra Shibir.
Radical Islam Spreads In Bangladesh
How deeply has radical Islam spread in Bangladesh can be gauged by the fact that some people, including intellectuals, have urged to change the national anthem “Aamar Sonar Bangla”, because it was composed by an Indian and Hindu poet, Rabindra Nath Tagore.
Attempts are afoot to amend the Bangladeshi Constitution so that the words ‘secular’, ‘Bengali Nationalism’ as well as all references to Sheikh Mujibur Rehman could be removed.
It is a new Bangladesh, as many leaders of the present dispensation have claimed. It is on a new path, the path of radical Islam. Soon Bengali Nationalism may be replaced with Islamic Bangladesh, which may wipe out its glorious history. Nobel laureate and progressive economist Muhammad Yunus may spearhead this change.
