Nabab Siraj was not an excellent ruler; East India Company and their collaborators publicized him as an eccentric autocrat. He could not save his grandfather’s kingdom from the British merchants. He was too lenient to the merchants and too naïve about their intention. Ultimately, his naiveté and lenience paid off. He lost his kingdom and life; Bangla lost its independence.
After 100 years of bad publicity by British and their local collaborators he cam back in the pages of history as a symbol of our independence; a symbol of our lost pride.
Modern propaganda ministers and pet historians also publicized Sheikh Mujib as a bad ruler too. People thought everything would be solved automatically after the independence, denying the fact that nation building is a long term tedious job. No nation has been developed until several decades of independence. Modern day Robert Clive, Jagat Shetth, Rajballav, etc. were working behind the scene. Eventually Mujib was pushed to establish a totalitarian system BAKSHAL; even though he said, “if my people don’t like it, I will revert” in a speech.
General Zia wrote an article in Daily Bichitra supporting BAKSHAL. Despite being a lenient ruler he will be in the pages of history as he led the nation to independence. His vigorous stance for Bangalee rights amidst Paki generals’ red eyes will keep in the pages of history as a super hero.
The independence lost through Siraj's defeat in 1757 was gained back by Mujib's rigid struggle for "six-point demands," win in 1970 election, unbending negotiation tactics with Paki dictators and finally the Liberation War.
Siraj’s death led to a dark era of colonial rule. Mujib’s death prompted a U-turn from the spirit of liberation and eventually brought the War Criminals and religion traders to power. From a plural secular nation the U-turn took us back to a backward nation that is longing for 7th century style theocracy; that is intolerant to minorities (Hindus, Kadianis, etc.).
Now the country is heading for a Taleban style revolution. The British merchants and their local collaborators like Jagat Shetth, Raj Ballabh gong and their successors, denigrated Siraj for a century after 1757. Mustaq-Zia- Ershad-Golam gong blacked out Mujib from Bangladesh for a long time after 1975. Siraj’s killer Miran, backed by British and Mir Zafar, never faced justice for killing the Nabab. Mujib’s killers, backed and rewarded by Mustaq- Zia- Ershad-Khaleeda gong escaped justice too.
There are several analogies between Mir Zafar Ali Khan and General Ziaur Rahman.
1. Mir Zafar acquired the Army Chief position by his good service to Murshid Kuli Khan. General Zia acquired Army Chief of Staff position by good job, as a sector commander, announcer of independence in liberation war, and afterwards serving Sheikh Mujibs government. Even appraising BAKSAL.
2. Mir Zafar was personally a religious and honest man and was popular at his time. But, he let the British and Hindu merchants virtually loot the country. Ziaur Rahman was a financially honest man and popular, but was dishonest in every other respect. All his ministers were corrupt and some patronized dacoits like Imdu, Galkata Kamal; they virtually looted the country.
3. Mir Zafar was the chief of Siraj’s army. General Zia was a senior general at Mujib’s time and Chief of Staff at the time of 1975 carnage.
4. Mir Zafar remained inactive when Jagat Shetth, Raj Ballabh, and British merchants defeated Nabab. Ziaur Rahman remained inactive when Faruk-Rashid-Mushtaq gong killed Mujib, his family, and the leaders of liberation war. [killer Farooq’s clime, Bangladesh a Legacy of Blood. Zia’s response was “don’t come to me if you fail” (what a subidhabadi!)].
5. Mir Zafar awarded the Jagat Shetth, Raj Ballabh, and British merchants afterwards, when he came to power. General Zia awarded Farooq and Rashid Bangladesh Embassies in different countries after he came to power. He rewarded the razakars and gong for their loyalty to Paki colonialists and war criminals.
6. Mir Zafar kept silent when Miran killed Siraj. General Zia kept silent when his officers (later he made them ambassadors) killed Sheikh Mujib and leaders in the Jail.
7. Mir Zafar let Miran escape punishment. General Zia let Farooq-Rashid gong escape justice. Zia amended the constitution to save the killers (the black Indemnity Ordinance).
8. Mir Zafar's treason led the death of liberation itself leading to a colonial rule for centuries. Zia’s treason led the death of spirits of liberation finally taking War Criminals and traitors to power. The country is now heading towards being a black shadow of Pakistan and Talebans.
9. Siraj was hated by the subsequent regimes like Mir Zafar and British rulers. Mujib is also blacked-out by the subsequent regimes like Zia, Ershad, Khaleda.
10. Mir Zafar demolished "monarchy" and promoted "colonialism", both existing in many underdeveloped countries then. General Zia demolished totalitarian BAKSHAL and promoted "militarism", both existing in many underdeveloped countries at his time. His election fiasco made world records.
11. Mir Zafar promoted treason, letting the Englishmen take power. He was finally hunted down by his own creation- treason. General Zia promoted killing and assassination by adopting "Indemnity Ordinance" in the constitution, freeing the punished war criminals from jails, freeing "seven murder" convict from jail, taking 11 murder convict to Hizbul Bahar, appointing the killers of Mujib in different Embassies, creating musclemen on campus. He was finally hunt down by his own creation – treason and killing. The brutality of his killing reflected his own ruthlessness towards any dissent.
12. Mir Zafar let East Indian Company loot the country. Zia let goons and thugs loot the country. He created hundreds of bank loan defaulters by forcing banks to lend money to his party goons. He took young talents and notorious killers in the same ship “Hizbu Bahar” together and taught them evade taxes. He also freed 2 thousand criminals from jails who were not only collaborators of Paki Junta, but also took part in killing, raping, looting, and torching freedom fighters.
******** Here are some highlights of Zia’s Misdeeds ***********
1. In 1975, Zia imposed the concept of Bangladeshi Nationalism in order to accommodate the Muslim Leaguers, Islamic fundamentalist groups, pro-Chinese leftists (all anti liberation forces) in national politics so as to subvert the mainstream secular political trends achieved through the liberation war.
2. Literally made politics difficult by investing large amount of foreign aids to buy over opposition political leaders in order to form his own political party the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). He made the nation too much dependent on foreign aid.
3. As a part of his political scheme, Zia rehabilitated all the returned Bangladeshi (from Pakistan after 1975) civil and military bureaucrats in top administrative positions to change the orientation of the state machineries. In 1975, Zia formed an administrative reorganization committee to rehabilitate the anti liberation forces in administration. The convener of the committee was Kazi Anwarul Haque, (later Zia's personal adviser). All the members of the committee were well-known pro-Pakistani civil and military bureaucrats: Commodore MH Khan, Air Vice Marshal MG Towab, Dr MN Huda and Zia himself.
Prof Emajuddin Ahmed pointed out that out of 31 top advisers /ministers of Zia 19 were strongly anti Bangladesh. In this regard a comment by Prof Musharaf Hossain is relevant: "......the most distinguished people Zia invited to join his government, after his r! ise to power in 1975, were Justice Sattar, Kazi Anwarul Huq, Hafiz Uddin, Mirza Nurul huda, Mohd Shamsul Haque, Shafiul Azam, Azizul Huq, Zahirul huq and so on. All of them worked as loyal associates of General Ayub /Yahyah during Pakistan period. They were famous for their so called "honesty and "efficiency". They were experts on "Pakistan Model" and did not have any qualms about the methods of realizing "Pakistani Development Model" in Bangladesh. But it was difficult to know about their attitude to an event called liberation war..."
4. Zia ruthlessly eliminated the remaining Muktijoddha (pro liberation) officers in the army, navy and air force (in 1977, a total of 1143 air force officers and soldiers, former freedom fighters, were killed in firing squad under Zia's instruction ).
5. Zia removed secularism from Bangladesh constitution and replaced it with Islam (Bismillah).
6. Zia corrupted the youths through greed. He established "youth complex" to lease the "khaas" lands to youths. He bought musclemen on campus and ruined young talents like Golam Farooq Ovi. He took the young talents to Hizbul Bahar to give them a chance for tax-free shopping and attract them by greed. In Hizbul Bahar young talents were kept in the same cabin with notorious murderers in parole.
7. Zia ruined the system crucial for democracy: the election system. He was first to use bureaucratic machinery to manipulate votes: in the referendum of 1977 Zia got 98.88% votes (88.5% registered votes) whereas in the 1970 election, at the height of the nationalist movement, Sheikh Mujib received only 55.09% of the registered votes.
8. On November 9, 1975 Zia dissolved the commission for investigation of the murder of four national leaders in Dhaka central jail. The aftermath was more political killings.
9. During Zia's regime the size of the defense forces was increased by 300 times.
10. By May, 1976, Zia conferred the war criminals constitutional rights to vote and involve in political activities in Bangladesh. General Zia's:
a. Second proclamation order no.3 of 1976 overwrote section 38, which had abolished religion based politics.
b. Second proclamation addressing section 122 reestablished the right of war criminals to vote
c. Proclamation order no.1 of 1977 overwrote certain points in section 66, which addressed the rights of war criminals to contest elections.
d. On 18 January, 1976, the war criminals were asked by the ministry to apply for citizenship
e. Proclamation Order no.1 of 1977 eliminated section 12 of the constitution
11. Zia let the killers of Sheikh Mujib escape from Bangladesh and rewarded them with diplomatic posts and status in various foreign missions of Bangladesh.
12. Under Zia's instruction the history text books in schools and colleges were altered and the political events between language movement and 27 March, 1971 were deleted. Sheikh Mujib was portrayed as the agent of the Hindus, a tyrant and an anarchist (same perception by Yahyah and his cronies).
13. Zia's pretext for taking over the political power was to declare war against the corruption by the politicians. Stamp corruption out was his slogan, but ironically Zia regime took the least actions against corruption as the following table shows:
Cases of corruption and punishment in four regimes (1972-94)
year regime case
c'sheet
charge
Case c/s
Punishment against ch'ge sheet %
Punishment against cases %
72-75
Mujib
2857
1957
938
68.5
47.93
32.83
76-81
Zia
6791
4369
735
64.34
15.82
10.82
82-90
Ershad
11102
7176
3349
64.64
46.67
30.17
91-94
Mrs. Zia
4746
4403
989
92.46
22.46
20.84
14. Zia turned the historical racecourse ground where Sheikh Mujib organized one of the largest protest rallies of human history, into a children's park (financed by Saudi Arabia) in his process to distort the history of Bangladesh.
15. In 1977, all the recorded (celluloid ) do**ents on liberation war (1952-1971) were destroyed from the FDC archive under the express order by the then president, General Ziaur Rahman
16. Zia set the trend of cutting trees and concretization of Dhaka city. This urban jejuneness is the projection of Zia's inner void.
17. Like a tin soldier Zia was a coward despite his outward appearance of a military mucho man. Inspired by the spirit of the liberation war, many freedom fighters married helpless, socially rejected Bangalee women, victims of the war. But being a self proclaimed captain of the war, Zia refused to accept his wife as she was confined in Dhaka cantonment during the war. After the war Sheikh Mujib had to convince Zia to accept his wife. But Zia never accepted his wife wholeheartedly and maintained a palsied relationship with her until his death.
Some critiques argue that General Zia was the 20th century version of Mir Zafar. Recent BBC survey on the best Bangalee of all times conforms Mujib’s come-back like Siraj.
Reference:
1. Killers and Collaborators of 1971: An Account of Their Whereabouts, compiled and published by the Center for the Development of the Spirit of the Liberation War
2. Commission on War Criminals of Bangladesh
3. Saiduzzaman Raushan: Speeches and Statements of Killers & Collaborators of 1971
4. Muyeedul Hasan: Muldhara: '71
5. Major Rafiqul Islam: Tales of a Million
6. Muntassir Mamoon: Democracy in Bangladesh: Elements of Consensus and Process.
7. Muntassir Mamoon: Je deshe Razakar Bara
8. Mujiber Atmajibani: Dr Mazharul Islam
MBI Munshi,
Tikatuli, Dhaka