THE nation today celebrates the 44th anniversary of achieving of our independence. Bangladesh is now a lower middle-income nation with many economic successes achieved by its people on way to creating a self-reliant nation leaving behind the terrible memories of torture and socio-economic exploitation by Pakistani rulers.
What is a matter of great disappointment is that the country is not yet free from fear and the people are still worried about their safety. The sacrifices our people made helplessly without surrendering to Pakistani occupation even in a situation when leaders had to leave the country has to be duly recognised. We have to be positive to make positive achievements to last.
When we observe the Victory Day, we must know what victory is and whose victory it is. We must all learn to respect Victory Day as people’s Victory Day for the well-being of the people. We must realize that it was not an ordinary war; the victory was much more than a military victory to make the nation free, it was a victory for practising democracy. Dominant role of Indian army should not mislead us into thinking that the military victory was everything.
Bangladesh was meant to be a country to create an obligation for all those alive to ensure that people in this country do not become victims of cruelty and divisiveness of enmity among us.
Today we must vow to make this country a democratic one for which our people made extreme sacrifices and to see that it becomes a safe country free from fear and exploitation of Pakistan days. Criticising the cruelty of Pakistan’s military occupation days can’t be seen as the easy way to ignore the people’s legitimate rights and security. The days of the rule of the few for exploitation of the many cannot be the rule in free Bangladesh. Sacrifices of the past leaders will not also justify the injustices of the present.
