Sheikh Mujibur Rehman "EMPOWER IAS"

In news:

• On March 17, 2020, Bangladesh celebrated 100th birth anniversary of “Jatir Pita” Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. PM Modi participated in the celebrations through video conferencing.

 

About  Sheikh Mujibur Rehman

• Mujibur Rahman was born on 17^th March 1920 in Tungipara, India (now in Bangladesh) and passed away on 15^th August 1975 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
• He was a Bengali leader who became the first prime minister of Bangladesh (1972–75) and later became the president of the same in 1975.
• He began his formal political career in 1949 as a co-founder of the Awami League.
• He played a crucial role in advocating political autonomy for East Pakistan, the detached eastern part of Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
• Sheikh Hasina Wazed, the current prime minister of Bangladesh, is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

 

 

Role in Bangladesh liberation

• In 1970, his party secured an absolute majority in the Pakistani general elections; the country’s first, winning more seats than all parties in West Pakistan, including Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party.
• The election results were not honoured; leading to a bloody civil war, and Sheikh Mujib declared Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan on March 26, 1971.
• The declaration coincided with a ruthless show of strength by the Pakistani military, in which tanks rolled out on the streets of Dhaka and several students and intellectuals were killed.
• India under then PM Indira Gandhi provided full support to Rahman and Bangladesh’s independence movement, resulting in the creation of a sovereign government at Dhaka in January 1971.

 

His legacy

• Rahman, who had been arrested and taken to West Pakistan, returned to Bangladesh after being freed in January 1972.
• For the next three years, Rahman held the new country’s prime ministerial post, and became a celebrated icon in India as well, admired for his moving speeches and charismatic personality.
• On 15 August 1975, Rahman was killed in a military coup along with his wife and three sons, including 10-year-old Sheikh Russel.
• His daughters, the current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana, survived as they were abroad at the time.