Fading memories of Mujibnagar Government
IT is sad but true that, nowadays, we hardly hear of or talk about the Provisional Government of Bangladesh, formed on April 10, 1971 and popularly known as the Mujibnagar Government. On the contrary, what we get to hear is when some high government official is caught with a fake freedom fighter's certificate.
Why is this apathy towards this government which conducted the War of Independence against Pakistan and led it to victory on December 16, 1971? Shouldn't history be told in its true perspective?
No matter how some may try to distort history, there is no scope to undermine the role of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Father of the Nation, who united and mobilised the country to fight for our independence. Similarly, there is also no scope to undermine the role played by the Mujibnagar Government, headed by Syed Nazrul Islam as acting president in absence of Bangabandhu and led by Tajuddin Ahmad as prime minister. The Mujibnagar Government earned the confidence of the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who sheltered ten million refugees from Bangladesh and helped the Mukti Bahini (Freedom Fighters) with arms and ammunitions.
Unfortunately, we have done very little to project the history of the Mujibnagar Government and the people who worked for it. Every time I pass by 8 Theatre Road (now Shakespeare Sarani) in Kolkata, which housed the Mujibnagar Government during the war, I wonder why we did not build a museum there and call it Mujibnagar Museum to commemorate the War of Independence and the role of the war-time government. For about nine months, it was the centre of all activities of the war-time cabinet. A museum in Kolkata could project to the outside world how Bangabandhu inspired the nation to fight for independence, how the Pakistan army and their local collaborators committed genocide on the innocent civilians of Bangladesh and killed the Bengali intellectuals in cold blood, how ten million refugees took shelter in India, how the valiant freedom fighters fought against the Pakistan army and forced them to surrender with the help of the Indian army and, lastly, how the Mujibnagar Government, imbibed by the ideals of Bangabandhu, conducted the war from the same premises.
Unfortunately, the premises at 8 Shakespeare Sarani now houses the Kolkata Branch of Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Is it not possible to regain possession of the premises with the help of the Indian government and build the proposed Mujibnagar Museum? It is reported that the Indian government once offered the premises to Bangladesh but we failed to make use of it for unknown reasons. Could we now take the initiative to build the museum?
The writer is a former chief engineer of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission.
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