DNA Exclusive: How MA Jinnah's folly led to creation of Bangladesh, know here

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Friday analysed the significance of this day for Bangladesh and how Mohammad Ali Jinnah's mistake led to the creation of the country.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in Bangladesh for a two-day visit, his first since the coronavirus outbreak. PM Modi reached Dhaka at around 10:30 in the morning, where his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina received him at the airport to welcome him. He participated in the 50th anniversary celebration of Bangladesh's Independence. 

Bangladesh completed 50 years of Independence from Pakistan and the hero of the war was Sheikh Mujibur Rehman. In 1975, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, the hero of Bangladesh's independence, and his family were brutally murdered in his own country. At that time, Sheikh Hasina, his daughter was in Germany.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Friday (March 26) analysed the significance of this day for Bangladesh and how Mohammad Ali Jinnah's mistake led to the creation of the country.

In the year 1948, during his first and last visit to East Pakistan, Jinnah had made the mistake by declaring openly that Urdu will be the official language of the whole of Pakistan.

Jinnah believed that Islam followed by Sindhi Muslims, Punjabi Muslims, Pathans and Bengali Muslims would be able to unite under the common language Urdu. 

But in doing so, he made a big mistake when he did not understand the mood of then East Pakistan as Bengalis felt their identity was under threat. 

Sheikh Mujibur Rehman was born on March 17, 1920 in the village of Tungipara in Gopalganj district of Bengal. He became a part of active politics in 1940, when he joined All India Muslim Student Federation. This was also the time when the Lahore session of the Muslim League first passed a resolution from India about a separate nation from Pakistan and then Mohammed Ali Jinnah was leading it. 

In the year 1949 the East Pakistan Awami League party was formed. The formation of this party was also important because Mohammad Ali Jinnah had visited East Pakistan a year earlier and then he had announced that Urdu would be the official language of Pakistan. This led to a major political conflict. 

Sheikh Mujibur Rehman was challenging the fact the government was being run from West Pakistan. He also won the provincial election in East Pakistan in 1954 and reached the Legislative Assembly, further, in 1956 he was also the Minister of Industries and Labor of East Pakistan.

However, in 1958, when the then President of Pakistan, General Ayub Khan implemented martial law in the whole country then the feeling of disatisfaction and despair in East Pakistan increased considerably. 

At that time Sheikh Mujibur Rehman was also arrested and remained in jail till 1961. However, after his release he continued to oppose martial law and he was arrested again in 1962.

In Sheikh Mujibur Rehman's journey from a leader to being called the 'father of Bangladesh' his struggle never really ended. 

In 1975, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman was the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and there was a lot of dissatisfaction against him in the Army. As a result of this, on August 15, 1975, some troops of the army conducted an operation against him in Dhaka. Sheikh Mujibur Rehman had three houses in Dhaka and the army raided them all and killed him and his family.

However, after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman his daughter Sheikh Hasina was given political asylum in India under Indira Gandhi's rule. Hasina had moved to Delhi with her family.

Friday's event on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh was dedicated to its brave son and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was rendered emotional as she remembered the whole story.