Award winning author and journalist Salil Tripathi has praised the leadership of Bangladesh’s founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and said international community can learn from his ‘principles’.
He said Bangabandhu was an advocate of “inclusive nationalism” and that his concept “remains very relevant in today’s world.”
Salil Tripathi is the author of “The Colonel Who Would Not Repent: The Bangladesh War and its Unquiet Legacy” and an award-winning journalist who chairs PEN International's writers in prison committee.
He was speaking at a webinar on ‘Foreign Policy Visions of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’ organised by Bangladesh Permanent Mission to the United Nations, New York in collaboration with the Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies, University of California, Berkeley, with Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen as the chief guest.
Salil Tripathi “praised Bangabandhu for advocating ‘inclusive nationalism’, which is rooted in the 1952 language movement and opined that such concept remains very relevant in today’s world,” according to the Bangladesh mission.
He also invited “the international community to learn few principles that Bangabandhu established by example – his dignified treatment to the survivors of sexual violence.”
Senior diplomat of the US foreign services and friends of Bangladesh liberation war honoree Tom A Dine, Bangabandhu Chair of Bangladesh University of Professionals Prof Dr. Syed Anwar Husain and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the UN Ambassador Rabab Fatima also spoke at the webinar.
The foreign minister in his speech said: “Bangabandhu was ideologically very upright, yet essentially pragmatic to uphold the best interest of his country. He, therefore, decided to pursue a neutral foreign policy based on universal values and principles.”
He reiterated the historic dictum of Bangabandhu - friendship towards all, and malice towards none - as the bedrock of Bangladesh foreign policy and will continue to define it in the future.
He also mentioned that Bangabandhu’s foreign policy was marked by “dynamism coupled with neutrality and high moral standing in the global arena. It earned Bangladesh the recognitions of almost all the countries of the world within a very short span of time.”
The Foreign Minister also expressed regret that subsequent governments after Bangabandhu’s tragic murder, tried to erase his ideals and contributions.
Tom Dine shed lights in the political climate in US administration during the war of liberation in 1971 and lauded Bangladesh for proving the then US leadership wrong through transformative development and progress in 50 years’ time.
The speakers emphasised on conducting more research and campaigns to spread the ideals of Bangabandhu among the young generations.
The event was moderated by Dr. Sanchita B. Saxena, Director of the Subir & Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies and also the Executive Director of the Institute for South Asia Studies of University of California, Berkeley.