Afterwards, Sheikh Hasina is consecutively leading the government of Bangladesh for last eleven years. Now, she is not only the leader of Bangladesh but also the leader of Asia who established liberal democracy, rule of law, people rights, women empowerment, and the freedom of speech in her country.
by Swadesh Roy
In Bangladesh, a slogan is heard everywhere and very popular which is “whatever the religious customs are, the festival is for everyone”, and the people of Bangladesh maintain it with a keen heart, not just a slogan. Despite being a Muslim majority country, the main festival of Hindu religious community, ‘Durga Worship’, is celebrated here as one of the main festivals across the country. Most of the Muslim boys and girls with a festive mood enjoy the days of ‘Durga Worship’, and similarly, the main festival of the Muslim religious community, ‘Eid-Ul-Fitr’, is celebrated in the same way and the boys and girls of the Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian community enjoy it fullest. On the other hand, the holy Christmas on 25th December is an enthusiastic festival in Bangladesh from the British era to now-a-days and is being celebrated gorgeously. All the hotels, main roads, and many private offices decorate their places using colorful lights, and not only children, but even adults from every community take photographs in front of the Christmas trees.
This religious harmony, clearly laudable, is a long tradition of Bangladesh, and to be honest, the Muslims of Bangladesh are culturally very liberal. That’s why, no Islamic fundamentalism put its feet in Bangladesh, rather when tried were overthrown by the government and the liberal people. However, Bangladesh is a religiously liberal country as well as liberal in politics which make the people here very much argumentative and strengthen them to raise their voice in any kind of suppression always. For this reason, no autocratic rule could get footage in this soil. We all know, the people of Bangladesh have a long and glorious history for achieving democratic society and the rule of law. Once, this soil was established as a part of Pakistan in the name of religion but resistance against Pakistan started within four months through the moderate young political workers and that movement became snowball within very short by the leadership of the then student leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He initiated to establish a moderate and liberal political party to achieve democratic rule of law. The party named ‘Awami League’, which made history and created an independent democratic country and the man Sheikh Mujibur Rahman became the leader of the liberty. In 1971, he was the democratic icon of the world, but sadly he was assassinated brutally by a military que detta and then the military rulers established one kind of autocracy. But the people of the country didn’t take it easily; rather they started fighting against military ruler where the workers of the liberal political party Awami League were in the front line. At a stage, iconic leader Sheikh Mujib’s daughter Sheikh Hasina took the leadership of the Awami League and by her leadership, the military ruler was overthrown by a mass uprising of the people.
Afterwards, Sheikh Hasina is consecutively leading the government of Bangladesh for last eleven years. Now, she is not only the leader of Bangladesh but also the leader of Asia who established liberal democracy, rule of law, people rights, women empowerment, and the freedom of speech in her country. For establishing it, she empowered the country’s legal system for trialing the war criminals and the corrupt leaders. Immediately after the assassination of Sheikh Mujib, this country was ruled by the military rulers who assisted the war criminals and corrupt people to become powerful. But now, they are in worse shape because of the rule of law, and they are blaming Bangladesh in many ways. Sometimes, they tried to confuse some important people and organizations supplying fake information regarding Bangladesh. After releasing a statement by the American Senator Chuck Grassley, a question aroused, was he confused by the fake information? Otherwise, why should he describe Bangladesh is under an authoritarian rule and facing persecution for faith and religious beliefs! There is no incident in Bangladesh that can prove any Bangladeshi was persecuted by the government for religious beliefs. On the other hand, Bangladesh is running last eleven years by the parliamentary democratic system. When Senator Grassley released his written statement, the parliament session of Bangladesh was ongoing and Prime Minister was delivering her speech in the parliament. So, it makes everything clear that Senator Grassley was confused by the fake information. We hope he will retreat from his statement because this statement is a cause of hurt for the democratic people of this small country. A big democratic country’s Senator cannot do this injustice to any democratic people of any democratic country.
Swadesh Roy, Senior Journalist, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is a highest state award winning journalist and can be reached at swadeshroy@gmail.com
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