‘Mujib not Father of the Nation’

While acknowledging his role in the struggle for independence, National Citizen Party Convener Nahid Islam said yesterday that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is not the Father of the Nation, accusing him of laying the foundation for "one-party BAKSAL dictatorship" and turning Bangladesh into a "tributary state of India".

In a Facebook post titled, "Bangladesh Belongs to the People," he wrote, "Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is not the Father of the Nation. We acknowledge his role, sacrifices in gaining independence, but we also remember the national tragedy that unfolded under his rule. Through his leadership, Bangladesh was reduced to a tributary state of India, the anti-people constitution of 1972 was imposed, and the foundations were laid for looting, political killings, and the one-party BAKSAL dictatorship."

"At the core of the Awami League's fascist politics lies Mujib worship and Liberation War worship, a political idolatry used to oppress the people, plunder the nation, and divide citizens into first-class and second-class. This was nothing less than modern landlordism disguised as democracy. Yet the Liberation War was the struggle of all the people."

For decades, the AL has treated Bangladesh as its ancestral property, ruling without accountability and using Mujib's name to justify every act of corruption and repression, Nahid added.

"The people's uprising of 2024 shattered this landlordism. No person, no family, no ideology will ever again be allowed to strip citizens of their rights or impose fascism on Bangladesh. The 'Father of the Nation' title is not history; it is a fascist tool manufactured by the Awami League to silence dissent and monopolise the state. Bangladesh belongs equally to all its citizens, and no single person can claim ownership of its birth or its future."

Mujibism is a fascist ideology in the name of Sheikh Mujib and the Liberation War, he said, adding, "Our struggle is not against any individual, but against a fascist ideology."

Nahid wrote, "Mujibism is an ideology of fascism and division. It means enforced disappearances, killings, rape, and systematic human rights violations. It means looting the nation's wealth and laundering it abroad. It means Islamophobia, communalism, and the grabbing of minority land. It means selling national sovereignty to foreign powers. For sixteen years, Mujib was kept politically alive as a weapon, while behind his statue, abduction, murder, plunder, and massacre flourished.

"Mujibism is a living danger. Defeating it demands political, ideological, and cultural resistance. Our struggle is to build a republic, a sovereign, democratic Bangladesh of equal citizens, where no party, no dynasty, and no leader stands above the people. Bangladesh is not anyone's property; it is the people's republic."