‘অর্ডারস অব দ্যা ডে’ বাংলায় না রাখায় প্রতিবাদ জানিয়ে বঙ্গবন্ধু
১৭ জানুয়ারি ১৯৫৬
করাচী
The constituent assembly of Pakistan:
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (East Bengal: Muslim): Sir, on a point of privilege. Sir, in the Rules of Procedure of The constituent assembly of Pakistan: under Rule 29, the official languages of the Assembly have clearly been mentioned as three: English, Bengali and Urdu. But as you know, Sir, the Orders of the Day are circulated in English and Urdu and not in Bengali. I do not know whether you know it or not and whether it has been done intentionally or not. But, Sir, I would like to know why this thing has been happening from the office of the Constituent Assembly, why it has been done and why Bengali has been excluded. This was my point of privilege to which I wanted to draw your attention. Sir, Rule 29 reads:
(1) The members shall address the Assembly in Urdu, Bengali or English, provided that the Chairman may permit any member, who cannot adequately express himself in any of these languages, to address the Assembly in his mother tongue. If a member desires that an English translation of a summary of his speech delivered in a language other than Urdu or Bengali should be read to the Assembly, he shall supply a copy to the Chairman who may in his discretion, allow it to be read to the Assembly. Such translation, if read to the Assembly, shall be included in the record of the proceedings of the Assembly
(2) The official records of the proceedings of the Assembly shall be kept in Urdu, Bengali and English.” This is the point on which I have raised a point of privilege.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: The proceedings have definitely been kept in Bengali. But the question is that since three languages have been recognized as official languages, all the three should get equal status. If the Order of the Day is issued in English and Urdu. They must definitely issue in Bengali also because Orders of the Day is part of the proceedings.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: Sir, I want to know whether the Orders of the Day is an official record or not. It has been issued by the office of the Constituent Assembly. It has been clearly laid down in rule 29 (2) of the Rules of records that the proceedings of the Assembly shall be kept in Urdu, Bengali and English. This is for consideration whether this is a part and parcel of the official records or not. Sir, according to our interpretation this is an official record, because it is issued to the Members of the Constituent Assembly from the office of the Constituent Assembly. When the orders of the Day has been issued in two languages, i.e. in English and Urdu, then why not in Bengali? So far, Orders of the Day were issued in English only, but when it has been issued now in English and Urdu, What is the intention of excluding Bengali? We want to know who has done it. Is it under your orders, or some official has done it? I do not say that it has been done intentionally; you are Deputy Speaker and your interpretation is final, but I would like to say that our interpretation is that it forms official records and when the Orders of Day were issued in English and Urdu it should also have been issued in Bengali.
Reference:
Iqbal, S. (1997) Sheikh Mujib in Parliament (1955-58), p. 102-104, Dhaka, Agami Prakashani