Behind the Scene

From Moulvibazar

Freedom Fighter Rama Kanta

Rajat Kanti Goswami

RAMA Kanta Dhar is a brave freedom fighter of our soil. He supplied food and other materials to freedom fighters in 1971. Now he is travelling from one place to another in Moulvibazar by bicycle, trying to figure out how to get food for his family. He is a mobile clock repairman. He takes care of his family by repairing clocks. He passes his days eating inadequate meals and sometimes no meals at all when he fails to earn enough money to buy rice.

Rama Kanta Dhar talked to The Daily Star on a day in the month of our independence. He says that Bangabandhu gave mercy to the Razakars, and now Razakars are ministers in our country. "If I worked in the Agriculture Department, then would Nizami be my minister? I would never think of it. Thank God, I don't work for the government,” said Rama Kanta.

The angry Rama Kanta has given his children names that are unusual for this country. They are Robin, Ransan, Roxy, Don, Milky, Ronaldo and Rivaldo. "I gave them these foreign names to my sons and daughters to protest the killing of Bangabandhu. We fought against our enemies in 1971 in the name of Bangabandhu, and the country subsequently achieved independence. But Bangabandhu, the founder of the nation was killed; the charges of his murder haven't even been carried out yet. So why should I give my children Bangla names?” he asked.

Rama Kanta Dhar is living at a rented house in the Chadnighat area of Moulvibazar town. He was an SSC examinee in 1971 from Dhirai High School of Sunamganj district. The National Awami Party (NAP) leader who was the lone elected MP from NAP in the 1970 election, Suranjit Sengupta, called out to people to participate in the war of liberation. Rama Kanta enlisted his name. At the initial stage, The Second Officer of Dhirai thana had trained a group of 28 freedom fighters and he was with that batch. This training concluded on March 24. Later came Sherpur of Moulvibazar with the then Chhatra Union leader (Later BNP Lawmaker) Nasir Uddin Chowdhury. He got involved with supplying food and other things to the Freedom Fighters at Sherpur. In the first week of April, he was injured in an air attack of the Pakistani Air Force and his left hand was damaged. Later he went Karimganj of India via the Latu frontier on June 19. There he was involved with the intelligence team under Captain Sajjad.

Rama Kanta has said that he is not able to fix his clock-repairing machine for lack of money- he doesn't even have the Tk. 400 that he'll need. He has failed to admit his son Ransan to class six of a high school. It is another struggle for him to arrange food for his children. In life, Rama Kanta is a defeated fighter. His own property at Sherpur has been grabbed by a local terrorist, he says. Rama Kanta has no demands from life other than having enough food to feed his children.

Copyright (R) thedailystar.net 2008