Not inviting India to Mujib Barsha celebrations will be ungrateful: Awami League

Obaidul Quader says it will be ungrateful not to invite India that helped Bangladesh most in the Liberation War to independence hero Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s birth centenary celebrations.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 27 Feb 2020, 02:21 PM
Updated : 27 Feb 2020, 06:53 PM

The Awami League general secretary reacted on Thursday to calls for leaving Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi out of the celebrations for deadly violence over a citizenship law passed by his government and seen as anti-Muslim.

“The basic reason behind inviting India is that they helped us most during the Liberation War. India helped our refugees besides arranging training and weapons for us,” Quader told reporters at the Secretariat.

“Moreover, the joint command of the allied forces and Mukti Bahini snatched victory in the final days of the war. India shed blood as well as we did.

“So, we will show a lack of gratitude if we do not invite India to the Mujib Barsha programmes,” the ruling party leader said.

The celebrations will be “incomplete” without India and omitting the country’s representation in the celebrations is “unthinkable”, he said.

Modi is among a number of heads of state and government expected to join the opening ceremony of the yearlong celebrations on Mar 17, the 100th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation Sheikh Mujib, in Dhaka.

Nurul Haque Nur, the vice-president of Dhaka University Students’ Union or DUCSU, urged the Awami League government on Wednesday “not to smear” the 100 Years of Mujib celebrations or Mujib Barsha by inviting Modi.

Nur called the Hindu nationalist leader a “communal rioter” referring to the 2002 Gujarat riots when Modi was chief minister of the state and the ongoing Hindu-Muslim clashes that have left at least 34 people dead in New Delhi.

Quader said the Delhi violence is India’s “internal natter”.

He said “negative reaction” in Bangladesh to the riots can be resolved through discussions between the two countries.