Sharmeen Ahmed, daughter of Bangladesh’s founding prime minister Tajuddin Ahmed, has alleged that the country’s history in educational curriculum is “to some extent individualistic,” which has erased the name of Tajuddin.
“Bangabandhu and Tajuddin were complimentary to each other, but the name of Tajuddin has been erased from history."
“The name of the life and soul of the Liberation War has been erased from the history as the curriculum is to some extent individualistic,” she said while addressing the publication ceremony of her book Tajuddin Ahmed: Leader and Father at a bookstore in the port city yesterday. “Whenever we discuss the Liberation War, we jump to January 1972 from March 25, 1971. The history of the nine months of the Liberation War remains untouched. The actual history is unknown to many people because of this escapism,” she said.
Shrmeen said there were many countries that had their founding fathers, such as the USA, instead of one father of the nation.
She said there were many controversies regarding the history of the country’s war of independence as there was an effort to implement political agenda in the name of history.
“There has been an effort to raise controversy centring my book. I will request all to read the whole book instead of reading it partially and cause the controversy,” she said.
Barrister Amirul Islam, an aide of Tajuddin Ahmed during the Liberation War, said authors of history would be able to use the book as
a reference as the writer had tried to manifest different issues with sincerity.
Former Chittagong mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury and economist Professor Mainul Islam also addressed the function.
Tajuddin Ahmed had served as the first prime minister of Bangladesh and led the wartime provisional government in the absence of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
A close confidante of Bangabandhu, Tajuddin was the general secretary of the Awami League during late 1960s and early 70s.
He coordinated the party’s election campaign for the 1970 general election of Pakistan, in which the Awami League gained a historic majority in parliament to form the government.
After the liberation of Bangladesh, Tajuddin became the finance minister in the Mujib government in 1972.
After Bangabandhu’s assassination in August 1975, he was arrested and, along with three other top Awami League leaders, was executed by the members of the military in Dhaka Central Jail on November 4, 1975.
