'Independence to an unwilling nation'!

IN a regretful response to the delay in ICT verdicts on war criminals and their execution and, apparently, to the defeat of all Awami League candidates in the recently-held elections in several city corporations, Dr. Muntasir Mamun commented in utter despair: "Bangabandhu has given independence to an unwilling nation and that's why we've to wait so long for the war crimes verdicts, including that of Ghulam Azam." His statement was aired in almost all TV channels immediately after he made it and was covered in several Bangla dailies from June 22 onward. I depended on an English news item on June 22 in Daily Prime News, an online news portal.
His comments could have value if a majority or all of the winning candidates had belonged to Jamaat-e-Islami or any such political party that opposed the 1971 War of Liberation. Because of active participation of Major Ziaur Rahman in the Liberation War, BNP's alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami seems odd, and has created sufficient grounds for people to suspect that BNP is tuned to fostering anti-liberation sentiments.
Even in this scenario, Dr. Mamun's comments need our special attention and warrant a retrospective analysis of the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent nation since he is a historian of repute.
One doesn't need to be a historian to reminisce on the mass upsurge in the years preceding the War of Liberation in 1971. It would not be unreasonable to say that the craving for freedom and independence among people of the then East Pakistan outweighed that among the political leaders. Let's hypothesise that Bangabandhu, for some reasons, had retreated from his position after his historic speech of March 7, 1971. Even if it happened so, would it be possible for him to prevent the people from waging the War of Liberation? The clear answer is a big 'No.'
Bangabandhu's roundtable talks in Dhaka with President Yahya Khan and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto till March 24 had been seen by the mass people with skepticism. As and when Bangabandhu disclosed in his press briefings that "discussions are progressing satisfactorily," many had spoken out: "What are these sessions about? Will these discussions lead to independence of Bangladesh? Will he be able to do anything for the people of this region if he sits on the throne in Rawalpindi as head of the central government?"
By then, the student leaders had designed and hoisted the flag of the new nation, read out the Charter of Independence, and sung the national anthem on the rooftop of the Arts Building of Dhaka University on March 2, 1971. What else other than these events may be a more formal declaration of independence? Historians and political analysts could yet not come to a consensus about who (Sheikh Mujib or Zia) made the first declaration of independence!
An official (state) recognition of the Dhaka University event can put an end to this hullabaloo. The flag-hoisting event of 2 March took place in presence of the largest mass gathering Bangladesh has ever seen. The vast gathering of the freedom-hungry cheerful mob extended from Motijheel in the east to New Market in the west and from Bakhsibazar in the south to Farmgate in the north.
All Bangladeshis are by now aware that the flag-hoisting event was followed by sporadic battles against the Pakistan army by the semi-armed student front and the mass people in and around Dhaka city, and the 'actual war' was also started on March 19, 1971 by rebelling army personnel of the East Bengal Regiment based at Joydebpur as the West Pakistani army personnel tried to disarm their East Pakistani colleagues. On March 20, the angry mob dismantled railway lines from Joydebpur to Kaoraid station to resist the movement of Pak army. All these occurred long before the Operation Searchlight on the midnight of March 25, when Bangabandhu was still continuing his discussions with Yahya and Bhutto and Ziaur Rahman was discharging his official duties at Chittagong as a Major in the Pak army.
Dr. Mamun, being a renowned historian, is more aware than we are of the background of the emergence of Bangladesh. His emotional comment may mislead the younger generation and further reduce the popularity of Awami League, especially among those who want to understand the realities that led to the election alliance of an anti-liberation party like Jamaat-e-Islami and BNP whose founder Ziaur Rahman was an active freedom fighter. If Dr. Mamun's revelation be true, people would directly vote for Jamaat-e-Islami, and not for BNP, again and again. In the few elections that Jamaat-e-Islami contested after the independence of Bangladesh, voters rejected them, except in a very few areas.
The defeat of Awami League in the recent mayoral elections can, in no way, be attributed to the unwillingness of the people to adhere to pro-liberation sentiments. The reasons should be sought somewhere else as already identified by some political observers, along with a few liberal analysts within Awami League itself.

The writer is a poet, essayist, lyricist, and freedom fighter.