35 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE A laissez-faire justification of freedom
Md. Taqi Yasir
We are celebrating our 35 years of Independence today and the whole festival will be celebrated by the traditional means. Independence Day is commonly associated with parades, political speeches, fairs, concerts, and ceremonies, and various other public and private events celebrating the history, and traditions of Bangladesh. TV and radio stations broadcast special programs and patriotic songs. Generally a thirty one gun salute is conducted in the morning. The main streets are decorated with national flag. Different political parties and socio-economic organizations undertake programs to mark the day in a befitting manner.
Now the question arises, are we liberated? Are we really the one who don’t have allegations of rape cases, are we the one who have let our mothers and sisters live in safe and sound milieu? The very recent cases of bankruptcy, rape cases and the economic drawbacks prove enough how much liberal we are.
The Bangladesh Liberation War ensued from 26 March onward as the Pakistani military tried to restore the West Pakistani government’s authority over Bangladesh. On 16 December 1971, the forces of West Pakistan officially surrendered, with Lt. General AAK Niazi of the Pakistan Army forces signing the Instrument of Surrender to Jagjit Singh Aurora, the joint commander of the Bangladesh-India Allied Forces. Despite the surrender and the fact that Bangladesh had effective sovereignty, only a handful of countries including India and Bhutan offered diplomatic recognition immediately in 1971. The USA and the Philippines, for example, recognized Bangladesh later in 1972.
The whole concept of freedom lies under not only gaining the independence from another country and gaining a sovereign nation, rather this lies under the effectiveness of leadership and the justice system of country.
Shamsuddin Ahmed, Member of 8th Parliament of Bangladesh stated, “Every year we celebrate two national days centering on our independence in 1971 March 26 as Independence Day and December 16 as Victory Day, the former representing the day we declared unilaterally our independence from Pakistan and our resolve to fight the Pakistan occupation army out of our soil, and the latter commemorating the day we emerged victorious not only on the battlefield but also on the political plane. I do not know of any other nation which won such Pyrrhic victory in its war of independence as we did and which celebrates its independence twice each year with such festivity as we do.”
It is needless to speak of the significance of the Independence Day in our life. Freedom is the birth right of man. No one has any right to snatch away this right. Despite the fact, we had to suffer deadly for lack of freedom for a pretty long time and live quite a sub-human life. We had land but we had no native land. We had language but we had no voice. Speak the truth, we were treated just life the inanimate objects of the earth. So we had no other alternative than to stand upright for the cause of our existence. We shattered the shackles of slavery and won independence in 1971. It’s high time we really break all the social shackles of prejudices and finally work as a team to attain the proper meaning of Independence.