By the Numbers
The verve of Victory Day
The nation celebrates today the 36th Victory Day for paying tributes to the untold number of martyrs who sacrificed their lives for liberating our motherland from the clutches of Pakistani occupation forces. Freedom had dawned on this day 36 years back at the end of a nine-month long war against an enemy who did not desist from committing genocide to retain their repression and exploitation over the people of this land.
The Victory Day is, therefore, not only a gala day of triumph and glory, but also an auspicious occasion for the nation to rekindle its patriotic fervour and renew pledges to fulfill the dreams of the martyrs.
Our liberation war was, in fact, a struggle of the common people who had been deprived of their basic needs. But their perpetual cries for food, cloth, shelter and health-care have not yet been diminished. One would obviously like to know as to why the majority of people in the country are in such a miserable condition even after more than three and a half decades of owning independence.
When the first poverty survey was carried out in the independent Bangladesh in 1973-74, more than 70 per cent people were found living below the poverty line. The percentage of such people came down to 58 percent in 1991-92, and further down to 49 per cent in 1999-2000. Though the percentage of people living below the poverty line has come down to 40 per cent, the rich-poor gap has increased instead of diminishing over the years.
Bangladesh, 36 years after achieving freedom, is still not far away from the trauma that it went during the last quarter of 1970s. Admittedly, there have been a few glories of achievements over the years, which include micro-credit development, drop in child mortality, lower birth rate, and women's empowerment.
But the successes that Bangladesh has achieved in all these years, are quite insignificant. The long list of futilities has soiled these meager achievements. The right to justice, equity and equal opportunity for all citizens that the people aspired to achieve after independence still remain a distant dream.
On this auspicious day 36 years back, destiny provided us with an opportunity to govern ourselves and lead the nation towards progress and prosperity. But the dreams and hopes of the people, for which they had fought and died, have not been materialised in the independent Bangladesh. The persons who ruled the country in all these years were responsible, more or less, for this failure.
The people of Bangladesh, who have faced and survived so many ordeals in history, now happen to confront the biggest challenge for electing honest and competent candidates in the next general election. Politics in the country had gone to the dark grip of hypocrisy, and nexus between crime and politics was widespread. It has now become the prerogative for the people to put pressure on the major political parties for nominating competent candidates.
The most disgraceful thing for the nation is the emergence of war criminals in the political mainstream of the country. As the BNP became more dependent on Jamaat-e-Islam for its support in the power-sharing electoral game, the Jamaat now holds an enviable position in the country's political arena. The fundamentalists against whom we had fought in 1971 have been nurtured under state patronage.
Of late, these elements are rearing their heads to snap at the ideals and values of our liberation war. What an irony, a university teacher informs us that there are no war criminals in Bangladesh as the war in 1971 was between India and Pakistan. The nation feels quite aggrieved when a retired civil servant says that it was a civil war and not a war of liberation that took place in 1971. These persons are now even trying to prove that they did no wrong for collaborating with the occupation forces.
The ideals for which our freedom fighters embraced martyrdom are now getting lost. A darkening of cloud is overwhelming the country and once again we need to display the force of unity to safeguard the country from the machination of all evil forces.
The freedom fighters, who were untrained and were barely armed, fought bravely against an organised army armed to the teeth. Still victory was won because the people of this country, whether in the battlefield or in their homes, were united and built strong resistance against the occupation forces. There is no family in the country that did not pay a severe price in the liberation war.
But the murky politics has pathetically divided the nation. Not only that, it has created a fertile ground for rehabilitation of the anti-liberation elements who have also wiggled their way to parliament and the cabinet, the highest seat of our national dignity.
Though the battlefield victory was won 36 years ago, the struggle for implementation of the ideals and values that our people believe in and for which the people had fought and died in 1971 must be intensified. The Victory Day this year should be observed not in pomp but in the spirit and vigour that went into the making of Bangladesh.
A stable democracy still eludes us. A sort of national consensus has developed against the futile politics. It is the national unity which is now badly needed. Only a united nation can really bring a real victory and the venue for its celebration will be our hearts.
The Victory Day always brings back to our minds the horrific scenes that occurred during the nine months of liberation war and made us unwilling to forget or forgive those of our compatriots who were actively involved in committing crimes against humanity.
No amount of glowing tributes, no homage will be enough in honouring the valiant souls of our martyrs, unless we could deal severely with the anti-liberation elements who are now trying to denigrate the war of liberation, the greatest event of triumph, glory, and pride in the history of this nation.
Let the verve of the Victory Day animate the nation and their united efforts be directed to make the country safe for the ideals and values for which the heroes of 1971 sacrificed themselves. We all owe this to our martyrs, who considered death preferable to a life of subjugation.
A.N.M. Nurul Haque is a columist of The Daily Star.
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