UNB, Dhaka :
Speakers at a virtual discussion early Monday laid emphasis on initiating a cultural movement and restoring the original constitution of 1972 to tackle communal forces who are making efforts to raise their ugly heads again.
They also bemoaned that the communal forces recently dared to create a controversy over Bangabandhu’s sculpture and defaced one in Kushtia as political forces used to use religion and religious groups for their narrow political interests by staying away from the Liberation War’s spirit of non-communal Bangladesh.
Canada-based Bongobondhu Cultural & Research Society arranged the programme titled “The killing of Bengali intellectuals in 1971 and the per
spective of today’s bigotry”, marking the Martyred Intellectuals Day. Speaking at the programme, noted columnist Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury said the reemergence of fundamentalism after nearly 50 years of the country’s independence is very surprising.
“The current government used to blame people’s ultra-religious sentiment for the rise of communalism, but it’s not true. There’s a conducive environment to non-communalism when Bangabandhu advocated for it. But the military rulers and Khaleda Zia destroyed it and turned the country into a communal one,” he said. Besides, Gaffar Chowdhury said a democratic government is now in power, but there is no democracy in the country. “This contradiction also helped the rise of fundamentalism.”
Speakers at a virtual discussion early Monday laid emphasis on initiating a cultural movement and restoring the original constitution of 1972 to tackle communal forces who are making efforts to raise their ugly heads again.
They also bemoaned that the communal forces recently dared to create a controversy over Bangabandhu’s sculpture and defaced one in Kushtia as political forces used to use religion and religious groups for their narrow political interests by staying away from the Liberation War’s spirit of non-communal Bangladesh.
Canada-based Bongobondhu Cultural & Research Society arranged the programme titled “The killing of Bengali intellectuals in 1971 and the per
spective of today’s bigotry”, marking the Martyred Intellectuals Day. Speaking at the programme, noted columnist Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury said the reemergence of fundamentalism after nearly 50 years of the country’s independence is very surprising.
“The current government used to blame people’s ultra-religious sentiment for the rise of communalism, but it’s not true. There’s a conducive environment to non-communalism when Bangabandhu advocated for it. But the military rulers and Khaleda Zia destroyed it and turned the country into a communal one,” he said. Besides, Gaffar Chowdhury said a democratic government is now in power, but there is no democracy in the country. “This contradiction also helped the rise of fundamentalism.”
