Let no one again turn Bangladesh into a subservient state: PM

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman on Saturday said this year’s Nov 7 pledge should be that no one can ever again snatch the country’s independence, sovereignty and people’s rights or make Bangladesh a subservient state, urging for national unity with the spirit of the 1975 sepoy-people’s revolution.

“National unity is needed to keep this pledge. In Bangladesh’s socio-economic, geographical and political reality, we must hold the spirit of the sepoy-people’s revolution close to our hearts and minds if we are to strengthen national unity,” he said at a programme at the Army Stadium in Banani marking National Revolution and Solidarity Day.

Tarique Rahman said the 1971 War of Liberation, the sepoy-people’s revolution of Nov 7, 1975, the 1990 movement against autocracy and the 2024 mass uprising against fascism had each shown that the people of Bangladesh never compromise on national interest, independence or sovereignty. For them, Bangladesh comes above everything, he said.

Describing November 7 as a day of great significance and pride for patriotic, freedom-loving and democratic people, he said soldiers and civilians had stood together on this day in 1975 and thwarted conspiracies against the country’s independence and sovereignty.

Recalling the events of that time, he said plots against Bangladesh peaked in the first week of November 1975, and the then Army Chief Lt Gen Ziaur Rahman was placed under house arrest with his family in the night of Nov 3. 

The soldiers and people joined hands to defeat the conspiracy that began with the confinement of the proclaimer of independence, he said.

Those who wanted to make Bangladesh a subservient state, impose one-party rule by denying people their democratic and political rights, and humiliate the armed forces, were defeated by the revolution, he said.

But the defeated forces, he said, did not give up. “Later, they regrouped in different ways and again turned the country into a subservient state. The honour of the armed forces was damaged through the planned killing of army personnel at Pilkhana, and fascist rule was imposed by taking away people’s democratic and political rights,” he said.

Those forces were defeated again in the student-people uprising in 2024, which cost thousands of lives and freed the country from fascism, he said. 

He paid deep respect to all those killed or injured in the long movement against fascism and in the uprising.

Tarique Rahman said, “The war of 1971 was to win independence, and fight in 2024 was to protect it,” he said. 

“As people from every walk of life took to the streets on Aug 5, 2024, soldiers and people did the same on Nov 7, 1975,” he added.

The Premier said history had since shown that Nov 7, 1975 set the course for Bangladesh’s future, and that whenever the country strayed from its spirit, its independence and the people’s sovereignty came under threat.