A discussion meeting and prayer program was held at the ICT Tower on Wednesday to commemorate the 47th martyrdom anniversary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the National Mourning Day through the screening of documentaries, commemoration and discussion of values. Bikarna Kumar Ghosh, Managing Director of Hi-Tech Park Authority, delivered his welcome speech while the meeting was presided over by the Senior Secretary of ICT Division, NM Zeaul Alam at the Bangladesh Computer Council Auditorium organized by Hi-Tech Park Authority.
The main speaker of the event, Mofidul Haque, one of the founders of the Liberation War Museum Trustee said, Bangabandhu had a non-communal Bengal in his heart. So he gave slogans in Bengali at the conference of Muslim Congress held in Delhi. He was a staunch supporter of Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy’s proposal to create a single Bengal. But he was not a supporter of Pakistan and Muslim League from the beginning. Bangabandhu was in Kolkata on the day of partition. Along with Gandhi and Suhrawardy and went on a symbolic hunger strike at Beliaghata.
In the context of why Bangabandhu-murder happened, he said, to understand it, we have to look at the various events after the murder. After this murder, the anti-liberation war and anti-development right-wing forces and religious nationalism advocates of the Bangladesh state came to power. When the armed assassins fell into disarray in the counter-coup of Major General Khaled Musharraf, brutally killing four national leaders in prison, they fled the country and, with the help of Pakistan, took refuge in Libya, the country of Muammar Gaddafi’s so-called Islamic revolution, or Green Revolution.
In a parallel discussion of Bangabandhu’s personality and values with the leadership of his daughter Sheikh Hasina, he said that after the independence of Bangladesh, the way Bangabandhu walked a dignified path in paying off the debts of the Pakistan era, his daughter also showed the same determination in the implementation of the Padma Bridge. It is largely because of his foresight that we benefit from technology today.
While speaking as the Chief Guest, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, the State Minister for ICT said, “Everyone should read the three books written by Bangabandhu, Karagarer Roz Namcha, Aamar dekha Noya Chin and the Unfinished Memoirs of Bangabandhu. This is not a political book. He was an unforgettable personality in the world. He was very simple. Pakistan’s own intelligence reports even did not show any fault by done him.”
He also said that no one can kill a person who is ready to die. Bangabandhu was always ready to die. He was not afraid of death. Although they killed Bangabandhu physically, the assassins could not kill his ideology.
Referring to the live video of a school-going boy’s muddy road drawing the minister’s attention a few days ago, he said, “After 1975, we could not even have thought of it.”
Palak said that even though there was an attempt to destroy the sovereignty of the country by killing Bangabandhu’s family or political successors, today Bangabandhu has become Bangladesh.
Stating that the government is using technology as a tool to make Bangabandhu’s ideal work to build a discrimination-free Sonar Bangla, the state minister said that technology will be used to build the Sonar Bangla of Bangabandhu’s dream. He said Bangabandhu’s dream was to build a golden Bangladesh without discrimination. Bangabandhu’s daughter Sheikh Hasina envisioned Digital Bangladesh in 2008 to build a non-communal, discrimination-free Bangladesh of Bangabandhu’s dream.
Mentioning corruption, terrorism and drugs as the biggest obstacles on the way forward, he said, we have to carry the non-communal ideals of Bangabandhu in everyone’s actions to move on the path of progress in technology.
Highlighting various initiatives of the ICT Division to spread Bangabandhu’s life and work among the young generation through technology, Zunaid Ahmed Palak said, soon we will set up a booth of Bangabandhu’s March 7 holographic 3D speech at the Liberation War Museum. At the same time a VR will be made on the liberation war. Video Image Russel Sona is in the making.
Documentaries titled Mujib Amar Chetona and Mujib Chiranjeeb were shown in between the speeches. Beginning with a reading from the Holy Scriptures, the program began with a minute’s silence to pay respect to the memory of the martyrs on August 15. The officers and employees of the ICT Division and its affiliated offices and organizations were present in the discussion meeting and prayer ceremony.