A glance of history
Iqbal Ahmed, New Eskaton Road, Dhaka
In 1994/95 BBC Bengali service broadcast a programme on the War of Liberation, Bangladesh, 1971 and India's role. Two of former India's beaurocrats D.P. Dhar and late P.N. Haksar were among those persons who participated in it. Let me tell what they had said about Tajuddin Ahmed, the first Prime Minister of Bangladesh in that programme. Tajuddin Ahmed played a major role and showed his foresightedness during the Liberation War in 1971. Tajuddin Ahmed understood very well that it was very difficult to achieve independence through guerrilla war only for instance the people of Palestine had been fighting since 1948 for their independence but yet to get it. So on the 1st April he decided to form a government with the Members of Parliament who were elected in the 1970 elections. At first he faced stiff resistance from the members of the Mujib Bahini led by Bangabondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's nephew Sheikh Fazlul Haq Moni, as they opposed Tajuddin Ahmed's leadership and also General M.A.G. Osmany as the Chief of the Muktibahini. But that could not prevent him from going ahead with his plan. Finally on the 17th April 1971 Mujibnagar government was formed at Baiddanath Tala, later renamed Mujibnagar. When Tajuddin Ahmed came to know that Khondakar Mushtaque Ahmed who was the Foreign Minister was hatching a conspiracy against the Liberation war and the Mujibnagar governemnt and also wanted to make a confederation with Pakistan, he was not allowed to go to New York to attend the UN General Assembly as a leader of the Bangladesh delegation. Thereby the conspiracy was nipped in the bud. Tajuddin Ahmed and General M.A.G. Osmany were invited to attend a high level ministerial meeting held in New Delhi in the last week of November. At that meeting it was decided that if the war broke out between India and Pakistan, then only the Indian troops would go to Bangladesh and fight. But both Tajuddin Ahmed and General M.A.G. Osmany vehemently protested against it. Tajuddin Ahmed forced Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to change her decision by saying that, it was the people of Bangladesh who were fighting for independence and they only wanted India's help. So both the Muktibahinis and the Indian Army would fight against the Pakistan Army in Bangladesh. Nobody knows what would have been the fate of the Liberation war and also Bangladesh if Tajuddin Ahmed had not taken those bold decisions.
| 
