পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্থ খণ্ড).pdf/৪৯

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বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিল : চতুর্থ খন্ড Punjab-dominated civil and military bureaucracies did not allow free election to take place in the country for the last 23 years. (The first general election was due in 1959. The Army moved in 1958.) (iii) The Army was finally forced to concede general election in 1970-71. The democratically elected members for the National Assembly from BANGLADESH had every right to give the country a constitution on the basis of Lahore Resolutionthe later being the basis of Pakistan Movement. Instead of accepting this democratic convention, the Punjabi-dominated army is engaged in genocide to strangulate the democratic rights of the people of BANGLADESH 2) BANGLADESH and West Pakistan have two different levels of civilization. (i)The people of West Pakistan consider themselves as racially superior claiming Aryan origin and they look down upon the people of BANGLADESH as racially and culturally inferior creatures. This is evident from what ex-President Ayub Khan himself wrote about East Pakistanis. According to him the East Bengalis had never known any real freedom and sovereignty they have all the inhibitions of downtrodden races and have not yet found it possible to adjust psychologically to the newborn freedom." (Ayub Khan, Friends Not Masters. 1967, p. 187.) This has been the attitude of die minority West Pakistanis towards the majority population Historically the facts have been otherwise: (a)The Bengali Muslims ruled over Bengal and considerable part of Assam, Bihar and Orissa from 1201 to 1757 frequently independent of the Muslim Emperor at Delhi, (b) the Bengali Muslims were first among the Muslim majority provinces to capture political power in the British India, and (c) the Bengali Muslims led the Pakistan Movement while the Punjabis were dominated by the Sikh and gave only lukewarm support and the frontier hoisted Congress flag even after independence (ii) It is, however, not surprising that West Pakistan will have a different attitude on East Pakistan. The whole area is virtually owned by a few landlords and they own not only lands but the people (in Sind about 80% of the land are held by feudal landlords; in Punjab and Sind the proportion is about 50%). Their values are essentially feudal and their society is supported by a network of feudal codes (of caste beradari in the Punjab and tribal customs in the frontier). Democracy in West Pakistan is meaningless as votes ate controlled by the landlords and the religious leaders (Bhutto himself is a big landlord and he got his majority in Punjab through negotiation with the Punjabi landlords. The Pir of Paggaro alone controls about 4 million votes.) The people of BANGLADESH are on the other hand democratic and egalitarian They have no caste or tribal affiliation. All lands belong to the state and so there are no feudal lords. Bengali Muslims are much MM tolerant to the minorities. West Pakistan dues IM understand this toleration. (In Punjab, millions of minorities were killed during tin.* partition of India.) They interprete the toleration of the Bengali Muslims as pro-Indian. In fact, the Bengalis are at a different level, of civilization with far more respect to the ideals of democracy, equality and religious toleration.