Tajuddin Ahmed: Portrait of a leader

Tajuddin Ahmed was a lawyer, an economist, a scholar and a popular leader. Born in Kapasia on July 23, 1925, Tajuddin became a boy of special attraction to his teachers from the day he enrolled for schooling. He was always placed first in his study and examinations.

He even memorised the Quran and became a law graduate after winning an election in 1954 as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA). Traits of the like endowed him with a rarely seen charisma that propelled his career through a meteoric rise in political stature and made him the very first Prime Minister of Bangladesh.

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In politics, his primary interests centered in the amelioration of the common people's misfortune. Due to his undivided loyalty and focus in such a mission, he became a founding member of the East Pakistan Student League (now Chhatra League) during the inception of the organization on January 4, 1948. Later, as the language movement gained momentum in the early 1950s, Tajuddin was one of the most active student leaders during the movement.

His true devotion to politics also made him a leading organizer of the Awami League at its founding on June 23, 1949. From 1953 to 57, he served the party as its general secretary (Dhaka district), and, in 1955, became the cultural and social affairs secretary of the party's central committee.

One great satisfaction that Tajuddin had while alive sprang from the role he played during the historic Lahore conference in 1966. The six- point demand was placed in that conference by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib, which later became a magna carta for the political emancipation of the Bengali nation.

Tajuddin's contribution to the drafting and placing of the six-point demand was so praiseworthy to Bangabandhu that he was made secretary general of the Awami League in the same year. Then, as he began a political campaign to press ahead the implementation of the six-point demand, he was arrested on May 8, 1966 and released on February 12, 1969.

His release from the prison coincided with a mass movement that began with the killing of the student activist and leader, Assad. The captivity also catapulted him to the centre of the nation's politics. He got elected for the second time as an MNA during the general elections of 1970.

He was in hiding when the Pakistan army went into a genocidal frenzy against unarmed Bengalis on the night of March 25. Having reached the bordering region of Meherpur on March 30, he sent a probing mission inside India to test the Indian authorities' mood and inclination toward the plight of the Bengalis from East Pakistan. It was a clever move of Napoleonic magnitude.

Instead of crossing the border instantly, he went to Faridpur on March 29, and was told of Major Zia's announcement of independence in Bangabandhu's name over radio. His first reaction was that an announcement by a military officer would likely be interpreted around the world as the act of a revolutionary council. "The people of Bangladesh had expressed their confidence in the political leadership, not in the military," he argued.

To strengthen our struggle with respect to leadership, Tajuddin embarked upon a mission to form a government in exile. And, immediately upon his arrival in Calcutta (Kolkata), his main focus was to organise a political government that would enjoy the required acceptability and legitimacy at home and abroad.

He met Indira Gandhi, the Indian Prime Minister, on April 2. In response to Indira Gandhi's query about Skeikh Mujib's whereabouts, Tajuddin said, 'He is with us and he will be our President.' Tajuddin added, 'under the administrative structure formed during the non-cooperation movement, he himself was given the responsibility of Prime Minister.'

Impressed by a reply tinged with sound legal and political reasoning, Indira Gandhi agreed to provide all types of cooperation to Tajuddin in forming the new government.

His diligence and perseverance eventually resulted in the formation of a new government on April 4. As the first Prime Minister of the nation, Tajuddin announced the new government's formation in a radio speech on April 10.

On becoming the Prime Minister, his first decision was to conduct the ceremonial oath of the new cabinet inside the Bangladesh soil. Chuadanga was chosen as the venue for the oath as well as the new capital of the nation. Tajuddin approved the re-naming of Chuadangha as Mujibnagar following the administration of oath to the cabinet on April 17.

Besides Tajuddin as the PM, three other central leaders of the Awami League -- A H M Qumruzzaman, Capt. Monsoor Ali and Khondoker Mostaq Ahmed -- became home, finance and foreign ministers respectively of the new government.

Despite his leadership facing ever new challenges from within and without, he led the war of liberation toward its desired victory. Among the challenges he had to surmount within the party, the Mostaque-Moni machination to unseat him through a no-confidence motion deserves special attention. So popular was his leadership that the majority of the elected MPs stood by Tajuddin during the no-confidence debate held in Shiliguri and organised by the duo.

Tajuddin led the war both as a general and a jurist. As India decided to commit troops to liberate Bangladesh during the winter of 1971, Tajuddin advised Indira Gandhi to recognise Bangladesh before Indian troops rolled inside Bangladesh's territory.

He had also convinced Gandhi to sign an agreement that would authorise the constitution of a joint military command to launch offensive against Pakistani forces. This particular agreement served as the catalyst to ensuring a quick withdrawal of Indian forces from Bangladesh after the war.

Putting the country before self, he unhesitatingly handed over power to Bangabandhu upon the latter's return to the country from captivity in Pakistan in early January 1972 and accepted the assignment of a simple minister in the cabinet. However, the war-time conspirators remained active to drive a wedge between him and Bangabandhu, which resulted in his stepping down from the cabinet on October 26, 1974.

Undeterred in the relentless pursuit of political correctness, Tajuddin never mourned his relegation from power. So strong was his moral certitude that while being the prime minister, he decided not to accept aid from nations that opposed the creation of Bangladesh.

Sheikh Mujib's political career passed through a spate of rough currents following Tajuddin's resignation from the cabinet. Only months later, an unruly section of the military assassinated Mujib and most of his family members on August 15, 1975.

The coup-makers arrested Tajuddin and put him into Dhaka's central prison. He and three other leaders of the War of Liberation -- Syed Nazrul Islam, A H M Qumruzzaman, and Capt Monsoor Ali -- were gunned down mercilessly on November 3 while in captivity.

However tragic his death was, the history of Bangladesh will remain incomplete unless the contributions made by this valiant leader are acknowledged with gratitude and paid homage to.