members of the Constitution Drafting Committee. A radio set was brought in order to enable them to hear the broadcast.
At 1305 hours the voice of a radio announcer read out the text of a statement ascribed to Yahya. The operative statement was that it bad been decided to “postpone the summoning of the National assembly to a later date” It was thus an indefinite postponement. The reason given was that an accepted consensus on the main provisions of the future Constitution had not been arrived at between political leaders. He referred to a political confrontation between the leaders of East Pakistan keeping away from the Assembly...If he were to go ahead with the inaugural session on the 3rd March; the Assembly itself could have disintegrated. “It was further stated that “it was imperative to give more time to the political leaders to arrive at a reasonable understanding on the issue of Constitution making, a session of the Assembly would be called."
In other words, Yahya clearly signified that the ruling minority would have a veto on Constitution making and indeed unless there was a prior understanding with them, the Assembly would not be convened. The Bengalis, despite being a majority in the Assembly, thus were to be reduced to impotence.
The reaction of those listening to this broadcast was one of total outrage. There could be no greater affront to the Bengali people than was contained in that brief statement. Indeed, it was evident within minutes that the sense of outrage that was felt by everyone in the party office was widely shared by the people. Government offices; banks, Insurance and other commercial concerns, were also emptying out. A cricket match had been on in the stadium. The students were already out in the streets in spontaneous demonstrations.
Sheikh Mujib, on hearing the broadcast, directed that all parliamentary members of the Awami League should assemble at Hotel Purbani at 3 p.m. when he would address them on the future course of action.
There was no doubt that a decisive moment had been reached in our history. It was clear that the ruling minority was not prepared to submit to the Bengali majority and had thrown down a challenge. They had a mechanized army equipped with tanks and supported by an Air force. As against this, on the Bengali side, there was the near total unity of 75 million people, who reacted with a shared sense of outrage and a common determination not to submit. Yet they were unarmed and in any head on confrontation it was clearly perceived that a huge price in human life would be exacted.
It was clear that there was only one course for the Bengalis a reaction of defiance. Thus, the threat of confrontation was now imminent. It was not known whether the military onslaught might not begin that very day. By the time I reached the Purbani Hotel, militant processions were seen advancing towards Purbani Hotel from different
