March 7 speech is everlasting inspiration for Bangladesh's people: HPM Sheikh Hasina

Each and every word of the speech is important for the nation and the speech has ultimately showed us the way to face all difficult situations after 1975 and pull out the country from ruin, she said.

"The speech gives us strength to face any situation and teaches us the way of combating enemies. So its appeal will never end," she said while addressing a seminar on the historic March 7 Speech at city's Krishibid Institution here on Saturday.

Sheikh Hasina said the speech is now one of the greatest speeches in the world. But playing of this speech was once banned in the national media, keeping a generation in the dark.

The prime minister said many changes took place in the people, particularly in the new generation. She expressed her optimism that in future none would dare to impose any ban on playing the speech.

She also hoped that none would be able to create frustration in people and suppress them from its ultimate journey to achieve the cherished goal of development.

Noted writer and journalist Abul Momen presented the keynote paper titled "Kalouthirno Bhason: Prostuti O Prabhab" (Epoch Making Speech: Preparation and Influence" in the seminar organized by Jatir Janak Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Memorial Trust.

Chairman of International Theater Institute Ramendu Majumder and Dr M Moshiur Rahman of Social Science Department of Dhaka University took part in the discussion on the keynote paper. Member Secretary of the Trust Sheikh Hafizur Rahman and chief executive officer Mashrura Hossain also spoke on the occasion.

Sheikh Hasina said the anti-liberation force took revenge of their defeat through killing Bangabandhu in 1975. The force left no stone unturned for distorting the history and erasing the name of Bangabandhu from everywhere.

They banned playing of the speech and popular songs and slogans of War of Liberation including Joy Bangla aimed at humiliating the pride of this victorious nation, she said.

The Prime Minister, also the chairperson of the Jatir Janak Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Memorial Trust, said the March 7 speech would inspire the nation as long as the dream of the Liberation War for economic emancipation would remain unfulfilled.

Recalling her mother's role behind delivering the epoch-making speech, Sheikh Hasina, also the eldest daughter of Bangabandhu, said her mother had advised Bangabandhu to be guided by his own conscience instead of others who were insisting him for open declaration of independence from the grand meeting.

"My father was largely influenced by my mother for such a balanced deliberation which on the one hand boosted people for getting preparation for the War of Liberation but Pakistani rulers found nothing sedition in the speech on the other hand," she said.

Highlighting the significance of the Speech in the life of people of Bangladesh, the Prime Minister said Bangabandhu had delivered the speech out of his conviction that Bangladesh would certainly emerge as an independent state.

Many people so far conducted research on different aspects of the Speech, but, the Speech with poetic rhythm, is the only one which never lost its importance and glory even in 46 years, she said.

"The Speech inspired people for struggle, molded them up to forge unity and mobilize them to wage a war to liberate Bangladesh from Pakistan, 1200 miles off here," she said.

Laying importance on allowing the new generation to know the country's history, the Prime Minister said the aspiration for independence still remained unfulfilled. So, the spirit of the call of March 7, 1971 still carries importance for us."

She urged people of all classes, groups and politics who believe in spirit of the war of liberation and economic prosperity of the nation, to forge unity and work together for building a happy and prosperous Bangladesh.