Prime Minister Hasina regrets her ‘lack of freedom’

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has lamented her ‘lack of freedom’ to visit Amar Ekushey Book Fair.

She advised all to build up the habit of reading books.

“I envy those who visit the book fair, take a stroll around, buy books to quench their thirst because I can’t move around like them. It makes me sad,” she said while inaugurating the book fair on Sunday.

"Official responsibilities chain me. I can't visit the fair gleefully like in those childhood days."

“I don’t have that freedom now. I have to suffer this pain for some more days,” she said.

She went round the fair after its inauguration and browsed some books.

Hasina spoke to foreign writers, and the president and director general of Bangla Academy, organiser of the fair, about the new books.

She spoke of her reading habit. “Book is the food of mind. I don’t know how time can be spent without reading books. I try to read books whenever I get time during my hectic schedule.”

On the importance of the Amar Ekushey Book Fair, the prime minister said: “Book fair is the fair of our heart. It’s not simply a fair; it offers a chance for writers, publishers, poets, litterateur and others to come before the public, it creates the chance to acquire knowledge.”

The prime minister also inaugurated the International Literature Conference which will be taking place on the sidelines of the fair.

She thanked the foreign writers for attending the conference.

Hasina remembered that her father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had inaugurated the first International Literature Conference in 1974.