A rare breed of pragmatic leader
Post-liberation December of 1971 was a difficult period for the Mujibnagar Government which moved to Dhaka on December 18, 1971. The law and order situation was bad -- there was uncertainty, chaos, and confusion. It needed deft handling and pragmatism to bring order from out of the chaos. There were the Mujibnagar returnees, with high aspirations and little experience, vying to occupy key positions in the newly born State, there were those who deserted their posts in the government and went into hiding to express their solidarity with the liberation struggle and there were those experienced civil servants who served the East Pakistan Government until the fall of Dhaka and surrender of the occupation Army. And here was Tajuddin Ahmed, Prime Minister in the Mujibnagar Government, coming to the Secretariat to address those who never deserted their posts. Would he order cleansing of the Government of those who did not defect? Would he make a fresh start? There was apprehension, there was anxiety. Tajuddin belied all speculations. There was no recrimination, no threat of persecution, no mass dismissal, but a call to work unitedly, sincerely and devotedly for the new nation to build up a Sonar Bangla, the dream of Sheikh Mujib, still languishing in a Pakistani Jail in Lyallpur.
Tajuddin did not question the patriotism of those who did not desert their posts, nor did he ask for a test of their loyalty to the new state of Bangladesh. A pragmatic man, an enlightened politician, transition from Mujibnagar to Dhaka was made orderly and smooth.
A few days after Tajuddin took over as Finance and Planning Minister, a new crisis arose. The Prime Minister, on the advice of the Establishment Division, issued orders summarily terminating the services of about 30 senior civil officers on the ground that they received awards on the occasion of the Independence Day on August 14, 1971 and, therefore, should be considered collaborators. When I met Tajuddin with this news, he was already aware of it and had met the Prime Minister the previous night to intercede with him to withdraw the order. It was quite apparent that some over-zealous Mujibnagar returnees had misled the Prime Minister to make way for them to get quick promotions. The Prime Minister was not aware that the process of selection of awardees for 1971 started long before March 26 when the liberation struggle started and had nothing to do with the conduct of the officers between the period from March 26 and August 14 when the award was announced.
The Prime Minister, however, declined blanket withdrawal of the order, but agreed to set up a one-member committee with Dr. Kamal Hossain, the Law Minister, to review each case on its merits and submit its recommendation to the Prime Minister for reconsideration. To the best of my knowledge, the one member committee recommended all the cases for reinstatement.
The financial sector when I took over was in shambles, banking sector was in total disarray, no budget, no foreign exchange, and an empty exchequer. That I was the nominee of the Prime Minister for the job of Finance Secretary did not make my task easier. However, having served the East Pakistan Government as Secretary to various departments including Finance, I had developed a knack for taking quick and bold decisions and shoulder the responsibility that go with it. This approach helped the overall decision making process, but landed me in trouble with the Finance Minister on a few occasions.
One such occasion was when, in my enthusiasm and sense of fairness, I introduced 'P' form for travel to India as was the requirement for travel to other countries. This created uproar and led Tajuddin to comment that I was driving a wedge between the two friendly countries of India and Bangladesh. The order had to be withdrawn, but only temporarily. On the other hand, Tajuddin was instrumental in including me in the Prime Minister's entourage for bilateral talks with Mrs. Indira Gandhi in Calcutta and advised me to make sure that I remained present during the talks.
Very often, Tajuddin faced dilemma between his responsibility as the Planning Minister when he was advised by the members of the Planning Commission, all of whom enjoyed the rank of Ministers, and his duties as a Finance Minister, when he had to take into consideration the view of the Finance Ministry, especially when the two opinions were contradictory. One such occasion was when, as the Planning Minister, he introduced a Cabinet Paper to break up EPIDC to which I did not subscribe. Tajuddin graciously permitted me to express my dissent in the Cabinet and did not contradict me. When I opposed the proposal to create 10 new Divisions in the restructured Planning Commission on the ground that this would create parallel policy making organs in the Government, he did not overturn my views, but suggested a compromise between the two extreme positions.
Tajuddin was a strict disciplinarian and dealt with labour union problems with a strong hand. Many a time, I accompanied him to Bangladesh Bank to confront the sometime unruly labour unions, but he never gave in to unreasonable and unjust demands. When the MD of a Nationalised Commercial Bank committed the indiscretion of approving a new pay scale for some of his staff members, under pressure from his union, in spite of specific instruction to the contrary from the Finance Ministry, Tajuddin accepted my recommendation to have the MD removed the same day under P.O. 9 and sent a strong signal to the banking sector that the Government would not yield to pressure.
A rare event of potential political embarrassment came when we introduced one-taka notes printed in Nasik Security Printing Press in India to replace the Pakistani notes in circulation. These notes were ordered to be printed before the Mujibnagar government moved to Dhaka. But no sooner were these notes introduced, than came the unholy campaign that this was an Indian ploy to undermine the economy of Bangladesh and the rumour that Nasik Press printed more notes than were ordered to be used by India to subvert the Bangladesh economy. One newspaper even dramatised this theory by publishing two one-taka notes side by side with the same number to prove the point that a large number of duplicate notes were under circulation. We both remained unmoved and merely pointed out that this could be achieved by printing the same note twice and did not prove the point that there were duplicate notes in circulation.
Unfortunately, however, the movement did not subside, but reached such a crescendo that we finally decided to withdraw these notes by giving sufficient time to exchange them for one-taka notes printed in England. This satisfied some, but not all. There was criticism why we did not instantly demonetise, but gave time and opportunity for new printing and circulation of additional notes. Tajuddin gave a statement in the Parliament that if Indian printed one-taka notes returned to Bangladesh Bank exceeded the amount issued even by one taka, he would resign.
About ten days before the last date for exchange of one-taka notes, I received a call from the Prime Minister who said that visitors from the border areas reported that crores of one-taka notes were finding their way into Bangladesh from across the border and, therefore, it was necessary that the one-taka notes be demonetised immediately. I humbly pointed out that those reporting the incident never saw one-taka notes of one crore at a time and could easily confuse thousand with crore, although it was possible that some notes which earlier were sent out to pay for smuggled goods were coming in. I advised the Prime Minister that the extended period for exchange of one-taka notes was granted since abrupt demonetisation would only hurt the poor. The period, therefore, should not be shortened and the Prime Minister accepted my recommendation.
Bangladesh Bank tallied the notes returned, after expiry of the due date, and reported short receipt of notes of more than Tk 40 lakhs. Tajuddin's position was fully vindicated.
About a month ago, at the dinner table in my Gulshan home with Dr. Nurul Islam, the erstwhile Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission and some old colleagues, the topic of conversation came around Tajuddin. I narrated an incident where I withheld for one month execution of a written order by Tajuddin to suspend an officer and resubmitted the case for reconsideration, which he did. Dr. Islam asked me whether I would take such a liberty if the Minister in question was not Tajuddin. I kept quiet and my silence was more eloquent than my answer. I took advantage of Tajuddin's kind heart and the knowledge that he would not hurt anybody.
The writer is a former Finance Secretary.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments