পূর্ব বাংলার মানুষকে আর কতদিন ধোঁকা দেবেন?
ক্ষমতা কার কাছে যাবে? কেন্দ্রীয় সরকার? নাকি গভর্নর?
২৮ সেপ্টেম্বর ১৯৫৫
করাচী
The constituent assembly of Pakistan:
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (East Bengal: Muslim): I do not want to go into details. In one amendment you say that the Central Capital will be administered by the Central Government while in the other amendment you are giving power in the hands of the Governor. It is just giving with left hand and taking away by the right. I know my friends – very-few of them are present here – the members of the United Front have declared that Karachi is the Federal Capital and Karachi must continue to be the Federal Capital. Why give bluff to the people of East Bengal. They have to go back to East Bengal and face the people to whom they have made this declaration. I can tell my friends that in the long run truth will shine and they will be out. For a few days you can bluff people of East Bengal but not for long. Mr. Nurul Huq Chowdhury went to Gadap and inspected the site for making a capital there. Now, I ask you: “How long can you bluff the East Bengal that this is West Pakistan Unit.” Let us be fair to the people of Pakistan. Tell the people frankly that it is to be centrally administrated and then give all the powers to the Governor-General. Why give all the powers to the Governor who is an autocrat. We are here to decide the issue, what should the Federal Capital, Whether Gadap or Karachi. The people have sent us here. We are the representatives of the people here who have to decide whether it will be Karachi, Hyderabad, Peshawar or Lahore, Why this camouflage. I would appeal to them through you that when today this amendment is passed, it will be known to the world that political deception had been practised upon the people of Pakistan. I know that some of the United Front Members, when they go back to East Bengal, will not come out of their houses. With what face can they ask the people of East Bengal: “Please give me vote”? It is a Coalition Government of the Muslim League and the United Front and for all this the United Front are also responsible. I tell friends frankly to every member of the United Front party that you have told the people of East Bengal that Karachi will not be in One-Unit. Let us see how they can go back to East Bengal and what will they say to the people there. I request them: allow the people to fight constitutionally otherwise the people will fight unconstitutionally. Do justice to the people, care for the sentiments of the people, respect the sentiments of the people, and allow them to decide. This is their demand. We know how much we have paid and how much we have spent here and spent there. We are not fools. We know it Sir, I tell you and appeal to them: be courageous. Do not try to bluff. Sir, I appeal to the old man of East Bengal. We respect him.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: Very well, an Honourable Member of this House, or rather the Honourable Interior Minister the Government of Pakistan’ I want to request him.
Sir, you have told the people of East Bengal that Karachi will be the Federal Capital. Now, sir, they are taking away Karachi and I appeal to him: please be careful, please keep Karachi for the federation of Pakistan and if you do not do it, he will reap the consequences.
Thank you.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (East Bengal: Muslim): Sir, I want to support the amendment of Mr. Abul Mansur Ahmed about the salaries of Governors of West Pakistan and other provinces. Sir, the amendment has suggested that the Governor should get only Rs. 3,000 per month. You know, Sir, the Governors are getting and will get Rs. 6,000 per month with free furnished bungalow and also other things free. Sir, we declare to the world that we are an Islamic country and we will follow Islamic principles. Now, is it following the Islamic principles that you give Rs. 6,000 to the Governor while the poor people of our country are dying of starvation and hunger? Sir, the people of my country have not got any shelter. They cannot get food, they cannot get clothe and sometimes respectable women have to sell their honour for food and cloth. Now, sir, whose money is it that we are going to spend? It is the money of the poor cultivators of this country-the jute and cotton cultivators and it is the money of the common man who pays taxes and out of those taxes we are going to pay Rs. 6.000 per month to the Governor. Sir, we Pretend that we are an Islamic country, but a peon here gets Rs. 50 per month, an orderly gets Rs. 70 per month, a clerk gets Rs. 100 or Rs. 150 and in this Islamic country these leaders of Islam will get Rs. 6,000 per month. Now is it Islam, about which are boasting too much and about which we are declaring from house-tops.
Sir, that great Chinese Leader, Mao Tse Tung, the Chairm of 60 crore of people of his country, only gets Rs. 500 per mon of course with free furnished house and other things which Governors and Governor-General are also getting here. But the in this country of 7 crores and 50 lakhs where 95 per cent of the people are suffering from different diseases and cannot get any medicine and shelter we are going to pay to the Governors Rs. 6,000 per month. Sir, when I move at night in this city of Karachi, I see citizens of Pakistan lying on the footpaths under the open sky and side by side there are palatial buildings with beautiful cars. This is the position in an Islamic country. Here our Ambassadors get Rs. 9,000 a month. Sir, this is the salary of our Ambassador at Washington and in that rich country of America, President Eisenhower get less than that. Sir, you cannot understand the position. I will ask my friends not to insult Islam any more. You have no right to talk of Islam when you are going to pay Rs. 6,000 to your Governors.
Sir, I tell you an instance to illustrate the economic condition of the country. A few days ago in Punjab there were 57 vacancies for labourers and for those 57 vacancies 5,000 people came. Now we cannot provide employment to all of them, we cannot give them food and clothes and we are giving fat salaries to our great leaders, many of them are rich people and they can sacrifice that money for the sake of the country. They can work without taking anything, not even a single penny, from the Government and they can continue the administration. They have got lot of money their banks, but still they will take the money which the pour people have given. Whose money is that? It is of the people Whose Pakistan is that? It belongs to the poor.
Reference:
Iqbal, S. (1997) Sheikh Mujib in Parliament (1955-58), p. 59-64, Dhaka, Agami Prakashani