The 148th birth anniversary of Muhammad Ali Jinnah has been celebrated at the National Press Club in Dhaka, following the commemoration of his death anniversary earlier this year.
The event, titled “The 148th Birth Anniversary of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah,” was organized by the Nawab Salimullah Academy on Wednesday (December 25) at the Maulana Muhammad Akram Khan Hall of the press club.
Speakers at the event said that for the past 15 years, mentioning Jinnah’s name in Bangladesh had been informally prohibited. Yet, it was because of him that we had Bangladesh today, they remarked.
Mohammad Shamsuddin, convener of Nagarik Parishad, said: “We gained our first independence as a Muslim country in 1947. It is because of Quaid-e-Azam (great leader) that we have Bangladesh today. Had they not come to this land in 1947, no industries would have been established here.”
“Before Operation Searchlight, India attacked the Urdu-speaking people in our region, aiming to eliminate them and take control of Bangladesh. We owe gratitude to the ancestors of the Urdu-speaking community in Bangladesh who helped establish industries and factories here,” he added.
Faruk Hasan, member secretary of a faction of the Gono Odhikar Parishad, said the Awami League had propagated the narrative that without India, Bangladesh’s independence would not have been possible.
“This is completely false. India only wanted Bangladesh to be separated from Pakistan.”
He continued: “For 15 years, mentioning Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s name was informally banned in Bangladesh. Saying his name would result in cases or being labelled a great sinner. The Awami League created this environment because it refuses to acknowledge historical heroes. If it does, its so-called father of the nation may lose prominence in history.”
Meanwhile, Afzal Warsi, secretary general of the Indian-origin Urdu-speaking Minority Council of Bangladesh, said even Sheikh Mujibur Rahman himself had never criticized Jinnah. “This indicates that he also respected him.”
“Because of India, we were divided into two nations. Their interference led to a war between two brothers (Bangladesh and Pakistan), where Muslims were the ones killed. What was the benefit? We ended up becoming subservient to India,” he commented.
Moazzem Hossain Khan Majlish, chairman of the National Independence Party, claimed the implementation of the Lahore Resolution had essentially been the foundation of Bangladesh’s independence.
“I believe we should move beyond the concept of a ‘father of the nation’ and recognize the founding fathers instead – Nawab Salimullah, Sher-e-Bangla AK Fazlul Huq, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani as the pioneers of Muslim independence in the subcontinent.”
Other speakers at the event shared anecdotes from Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s life, from his birth to his death.
Notably, on September 11, the same Nawab Salimullah Academy organized a discussion at the National Press Club to observe Jinnah’s 76th death anniversary.