Dawn
21st August 1966
Awami League Demands Day appeal
(From Our Staff Correspondent)
DACCA, Aug 20: The East Pakistan Awami League’s much publicised second phase of movement for the realisation of the 6point demand, which was to have been launched on Aug 16, has failed.
Even three days after the date fixed for launching the movement, there is no indication from anywhere in the province to show that the day has actually been “observed”. The people kept, themselves aloof from the Awami League’s so-called movement and refused to associate themselves with its programme which has already gained sufficient notoriety.
According to reports received from different parts of the province, the Awami League’s appeal to the people to launch the second phase went completely unheeded. with the result that everywhere it ended in a fiasco.
In Dacca itself the day went unnoticed.
At Chittagong the Awami Leaguers were, however, able to hold a public meeting and nothing more. Reports from Chittagong said, apart from the meeting, there was no other activity although the top leaders of the Provincial party had assembled there.
In sharp contrast to its earlier movement (the first phase) the Awami League did not spell out its programme for the second phase, but merely issued an appeal for “launching” the same on Aug 16. Political circles think that this deliberate omission is due to sharp difference of opinion within the party leadership over the six-point programme, and secondly the feeling, shared by many in the party, that the “day was doomed to failure.
The rift in the Provincial Awami League on the issue of the 6point programme, despite Sheikh Mujib and his followers’ apparent determaination to go ahead with it, has already alienated sober and saner elements of the party. In the recent past there have been some registrations from the party, the important of which was that of its Vice President. Although he had said that he was resigning for personal reason – a patent excuse on such occasions-the real cause was stated to be differences of opinion over Awami League activities.
According to competent political circles, the recent Pakistan protest against Indian leaders support for Awami League’s 6-point programme, has opened the eyes of those who were still prepared to give the organisation the benefit of doubt. It may be mentioned that Indian leaders have been openly lending support to the 6-point programme and demanding reunion of India and Pakistan.
সূত্র: সংবাদপত্রে বঙ্গবন্ধু তৃতীয় খণ্ড: ষাটের দশক॥ দ্বিতীয় পর্ব