‘One-sided and biased’ July Proclamation cast doubt on Liberation War, 2024 Uprising: Gono Forum

By questioning the process and structure of the 1972 Constitution, the July Proclamation has cast doubt on both the Liberation War and the 2024 Uprising, the party says

Gono Forum has ripped into the recently announced July Proclamation as “one-sided and biased”, accusing it of distorting history and undermining the spirit of the Liberation War and the 2024 popular uprising.

Speaking at a press conference at the party’s Purana Paltan headquarters in Dhaka on Thursday, Gono Forum General Secretary Mizanur Rahman said the declaration lacked a clear outline of the future state structure and ignored the foundational vision of an egalitarian society that had driven the July Uprising.

“The July Proclamation attempts to spark controversy over the process and structural basis of the 1972 Constitution, which was adopted in continuity with the Proclamation of Independence on the 10th of April and the Declaration of Independence on the 26th of March in 1971,” Mizanur said.

“In the past 53 years, no political party or government had ever questioned the process by which the 1972 Constitution was enacted.”

In a written statement presented at the briefing, Gono Forum -- the party founded by one of the authors of the constitution, Dr Kamal Hossain -- warned that questioning the constitution-making process amounts to questioning the Liberation War itself.

“While any constitution can be amended or refined in line with public aspirations, challenging the legitimacy of its drafting is a tactic used only by anti-Liberation forces,” the party said.

Gono Forum also accused the interim government of using the July Proclamation to “divert attention from decades of governance failures” by blaming the Constitution alone.

“This proclamation has not only reopened debate on the Liberation War and the July-August Uprising, but also reflects a petty mentality of blaming the 1972 Constitution for the failures of subsequent governments,” said Mizanur.

“It is politically dishonest to shift the burden of those failures onto the Constitution rather than acknowledging the shortcomings of ruling parties in governance.”

The Gono Forum leader also alleged that the government had shown “clear bias” in the way the July Proclamation was disseminated and launched.

“Only a few parties received the draft beforehand. On the day of the reading, our office was sent a single invitation card in the name of the general secretary, and that too at 12 noon, just hours before the event,” said Mizanur.

“Despite the unfair treatment, we attended to show cooperation. But even there, discrimination persisted.”

Acting President Subrata Chowdhury said those who had come to power in the past often violated the Constitution and ran the country in an “unconstitutional and authoritarian manner”.

“They cannot use the Constitution as a scapegoat to avoid accountability,” he said.