PM seeks support to make Bangla a UN language

New York, Sept 26 (bdnews24.com)--Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday urged the international community to recognise Bangla as one of the official languages of the UN citing its growing status.

Addressing the UN General Assembly in New York, she said UNESCO recognised February 21 as the International Mother Language Day honouring Bangladesh's language movement in 1952.

"The language Bangla is spoken by over 250 million people worldwide, primarily in Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal," she said, arguing the case.

"The Bangladesh Parliament, therefore, recently adopted a resolution requesting the United Nations to declare Bangla as one of its official languages.

"Given the rich heritage of Bangla language, and its singular place as a symbol of people's faith in the power of languages to sustain cultures, and indeed the identity of nations, I seek support of the membership of UNGA for its acceptance as an official language of the United Nations," said the prime minister, a graduate in Bangla.

She delivered the address in her mother tongue, just as her father 'Bangabandhu' Sheikh Mujibur Rahman did on Sep 23, 1974.

The UN has English, French, Russian, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic as official languages. Bangla is the sixth most spoken language in the world.

Sierra Leone has accorded Bangla the status of second state language out of gratitude to Bangladeshis. Many roads and avenues in that African nation have been named after Bangladesh which bears testimony to the success of Bangladesh, Hasina said.

Most of them understand Bangla.

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