A.T.M. Nurun Nabi :
Iktiaruddin Muhammad Baktiar Khilji established Muslim rule in Bengal early 13th century, while Haji Ilyas, better known as Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah was the founder of the Sultanate of Bengal and its inaugural Ilyas Shahi dynasty which ruled the region from 1342 to 1487 A.D. However, Bengal lost its sovereignty with the defeat of Nawab Sirajuddowlah to a small British Army.
But independence was regained in December 1971 after nine months’ people war guided by Architect of Bangladesh Sheikh Mujibur Rahman although he was not physically present in the battle field.
Bengal Muslim League leaders Hussain Shahid Suhrawardy and Abul Hashim proposed for united Bengal free from the dominion of India and Pakistan. opposed Bengal Congress leaders Sarat Bose and Kiron Sankar joined them. To get the nod of the central leaders of the All India Muslim League and the All India National Congress, Suhrawardy and Sarat Bose left for Delhi. ML leader Jinnah told Suhrawardy that he had no objection to the sovereign united Bengal plan if agreed by the Congress.
Contrarily Nehru and Gandhi sent Sarat Bose to Sardar Ballav Bhai Patel, who said: Sarat Babu! Leave your madness. We want Calcutta. Calcutta is ours.” Returning to Calcutta, Sarat Bose blamed the Congress leaders for failure of the sovereign Bengal mission.
After creation of Pakistan as a new state for the Muslims majority people in India, it became evident to the Bengali speaking people of Pakistan that the West Pakistani dominated central government would exploit them. And that is why the Tamaddun Majlish and the East Pakistan Muslim Students League declared 11 March 1948 as Bhasha Dibosh.
On the day about 65 to 70 student leaders including Sheikh Mujibur Rahman were arrested. This was the beginning of the struggling political life of Mujib, who was a man of indomitable character dogged tenacity of purpose and firm determination and a true nationalist.
The illustrious Six Points were announced by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Architect of Bangladesh, in Lahore in the month of February 1966. The new political programme changed the course of the then Pakistan, and the great leader continued his campaign and finally got success in the National Assembly election held in December 1970. The point is what are the Six Points having tremendous power?
The 6-points are being produced hereunder as evidence of history.
1. The Constitution should provide for a Federation of Pakistan in its true sense on the Lahore Resolution, and the parliamentary form of government with supremacy of a Legislature directly elected on the basis of universal adult franchise.
2. The federal government should deal with only two subjects: Defence and Foreign Affairs, and all other residuary subjects shall be vested in the federating states.
3. Two separate, but freely convertible currencies for two wings should be introduced; or if this is not feasible, there should be one currency for the whole country, but effective constitutional provisions should be introduced to stop the flight of capital from East to West Pakistan. Furthermore, a separate Banking Reserve should be established, and separate fiscal and monetary policy be adopted for East Pakistan.
4. The power of taxation and revenue collection shall be vested in the federating units and the federal centre will have no such power on the issue. The federation will be entitled to a share in the state taxes to meet its expenditures.
5. There should be two separate accounts for the foreign exchange earnings of the two wings; the foreign exchange requirements of the federal government should be met by the two wings equally or in a ratio to be fixed; indigenous products should move free of duty between the two wings, and the Constitution should empower the units to establish trade links with foreign countries.
6. East Pakistan should have a separate militia or paramilitary force.
The success began with landslide victory in the National Assembly Election held in December 7 in 1970. It was succeeded by the historic 7 March speech and informal declaration of independence, non-cooperation movement and formal declaration of independence on March 26, 1971, formation of the Bangladesh Government at Mujibnagar on April 17 and division of the country into 11 military zones under sector commanders.
Father of nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was a man of dogged tenacity of purpose, indomitable energy and moral courage who never bowed down to the injustice.
(A.T.M. Nurun Nabi is a senior journalist).
