PM for liberal society

Hands over Ekushey Padak 2010
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday urged people of all strata to help build Bangladesh as a knowledge-based, liberal and non-communal country free from prejudices being imbued with the spirit of the great language movement.
She also called upon the country’s artists, poets, writers and other intellectuals to further advance Bangla language and literature in the world arena through their united work.
The prime minister made the call while addressing the award-giving ceremony of Ekushey Padak 2010 at the city’s Osmani Auditorium in the morning.
She informed the function that her government has already urged the United Nations to recognise Bangla as one of its official languages to further glorify the supreme sacrifice and contribution of the language-movement heroes.
The prime minister announced the government’s latest step to compile the chronicles of events of the 1952 Language Movement and officially submit the compilation to the United Nations to project in detail the glories of the language movement.
“We will compile the history of our great language movement and send those to the United Nations for projecting the glorious history,” she said, hoping that this will help in recognising the Bengali language as one of UN’s official languages.
The distinguished personalities who received the prestigious Ekushey Padak 2010 are Dr Golam Moula (language movement-posthumous), poet Mohammad Rafique (literature), Sayeed Ahmad (literature-playwright, posthumous), Helena Khan (literature), Dr Muntasir Mamun (research), ASHK Sadek (social personality, posthumous), Sangharaj Jyotipal Mahathero (social personality, posthumous), AKM Hanif alias Hanif Sangket (social personality), Partha Pratim Majumder (mime artist), Nasir Uddin Yusuf Bacchu (theatre), AKM Abdur Rauf (fine arts-posthumous), Imdad Hossan (fine arts), Ahmed Imtiaz Bulbul (lyricist-music), Laila Hasan (artiste-dance) and Mohammad Alam (photojournalist-posthumous).
Sheikh Hasina handed over the award that carries a medal, a certificate and cheque for Tk 1 lakh to each of the award winners or to their successors at the function.
The awarding ceremony started with the playing of the National Anthem, which was followed by recitations from the holy Quran, Geeta, Bible and Tripitok as conventional rituals of state functions.
With Information Minister Abul Kalam Azad in the chair, the function was also addressed by State Minister for Cultural Affairs Promod Mankin. Cabinet Secretary M Abdul Aziz moderated the programme, which was attended by ministers, advisers to the prime minister, Judges, MPs, diplomats and representatives of donor agencies and foreign missions.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in her address paid rich tributes to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and all language martyrs, including Barkat, Jabbar, Rafique and Salam.
She expressed the hope that the non-communal spirit of the Bengali nation would continue to defeat the evils like militancy and extremism.
“Ekush (21st February) is the source of our existence. It is the carter of Bangalee nationalism, secularism and non-communal spirit. Evil forces will never be able to erase the non-communal tradition and culture from the hearts of the people as Ekush will remain ever-alive in our hearts,” she said.
“We are such a rare nation in the world which sacrificed lives to uphold dignity of its mother tongue. Through the path of language movement, we also attained independence by defeating a mighty force. Now our government’s mission is to turn Bangladesh into a technology-based modern country.”
She said history and spirit of the language movement can inspire every citizen of the country to achieve its development targets.
Hasina observed that 21st February is no longer an auspicious occasion only for the Bengali nation–now people of all languages observe the day as the International Mother Language Day.
“The 21st February is now the symbol of realising the rights of all to their mother languages, particularly for the minority ethnic groups.”
She said that through the establishment of International Mother Language Institute in Dhaka, the Bengali nation has been entrusted with the great responsibility of protecting all mother languages of the world.
“Now it is our great duty to save all mother languages in the globe. We can do this through continuous research. And we must be successful in doing this onerous task.”
BSS adds: Bangladesh Photo Journalists Association (BPJA) yesterday expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government for awarding Ekushey Padak to its founder member late Mohammad Alam for his contribution to journalism.
The BPJA, in a statement, urged the government to continue the trend of giving the Ekushey Padak to the photojournalists.
The statement, signed by BPJA Office Secretary Shahadat Hossain, hoped that the government would extend all cooperation to the photojournalists in discharging their professional duties in future.

Courtesy of UNB via The Daily Star