Six-point programme: prelude to independence

"It is quite obvious that this man (Sheikh Mujib) is a menace and will continue to mislead the Bengalis as long as he lives." (Diaries of Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan, 1966-1973. Edited and Annotated by Criag Bazxter-p100)." This is how Pakistan's military and civilian rulers before and after him assessed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, later the Father of the Bangladesh Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Mujib changed the destiny of Pakistan and led the creation of a new country, Bangladesh. Mujib as a young student in Calcutta (Kolkata) fought alongside with the Muslim League leaders for the creation of a separate country for the economically and socially downtrodden Muslims in Bengal. He saw from his early childhood school days how the Muslim community of Bengal suffered economic and social deprivation at the hands of large Hindu landowners, Zamindars, money lenders and social elites. This happened all over undivided Bengal.

Mujib was a person who was very much concerned with what he saw around him and when he went to Calcutta for his college studies, he thought he got a platform to fight against the oppressors to emancipate the oppressed and soon became an active worker of student front of the Muslim League. He became a witness to the horrific Bengal famine of 1943 and the communal riots of 1946. Soon he came into contact with popular Muslim Leaders in Calcutta, like Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, AK Fazlul Huq, Abdul Hashim and others. Like most Muslims, he was also mistakenly convinced that only a separate homeland for them could improve the socio-economic conditions of the Muslims in Bengal. He was apparently not much aware of the Muslims in other parts of India.

India was divided into two separate states, India and Pakistan and the separation came into effect on Aug 14, 1947, based on the strange Two-Nation Theory of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. To put things in proper perspective there were others who also believed in this strange theory. Pakistan also became a unique country with one thousand miles of Indian territory in the middle and there were more Muslims in India than in Pakistan. When the two new countries were carved out of one undivided subcontinent, most people were not aware of which country they belonged to as the line of demarcation was not published until Aug 17, 1947. This led to another catastrophic riot in many parts of the Indian subcontinent, especially Punjab. The Muslim leaders of Bengal along with many others migrated to the newly created the then East Bengal (later East Pakistan and subsequently Bangladesh) just to find out the main reason behind the creation of the so-called separate country for the Muslims. It was a just a ploy to replace the English and the large land- and money-owning exploiters with the rich capital-owning Punjabis. Only the owners of large lands in West Punjab had the money and muscle. They just used Jinnah as their frontline crusader as he had Western education, studied law and behaved like a Westerner. He was not considered a Muslim by orthodox Muslims as he came from a Khoja Ismaili family in Gujarat.

Jinnah did not speak any language other than English and a bit of Gujarati. That same Jinnah came to Dhaka in 1948 and declared Urdu will be the lingua franca of Pakistan which simply meant 94 percent of the population of Pakistan will virtually become illiterate as only 6 percent of the people of Pakistan, most of whom migrated from Northern India, spoke Urdu.  At the birth of Pakistan, East Pakistan had 56 percent of the total population of Pakistan and their language was Bangla. When Jinnah declared that only Urdu shall be the lingua franca of Pakistan it was the people, especially the students of Dhaka University who protested and Mujib was one of them. The people realised that there will not be any change in the socio-economic condition of the people of Bengal. The creation of Pakistan only changed the rulers and not the plight of the common people. The rich, especially Punjabis, have replaced the English and the Hindu Zamindars and big landowners.

The unjust decisions of Pakistan's rulers never went unchallenged in East Pakistan, the students playing the vanguard. But the vigilant students also understood that instead of an organised protest they needed an organised platform and thus they formed the East Pakistan Muslim Students' League, virtually the first opposition party of Pakistan in 1948 and East Pakistan Muslim Awami League the following year. In the formation of both organisations, young Mujib played important roles. He could see the future of the people of Bengal and how these political platforms would come to play an important role in shaping their destiny.

The first testing time for the people of East Bengal came in the month of February in 1952 during the Language Movement. The movement was a crucial turning point in the history of East Pakistan.

In 1954, the first-ever election of Pakistan was held in East Bengal to elect the members of the provincial parliament. It was a testing time for the Muslim League, the party in power, and the entire administration behind it. Though initially, the political parties of East Bengal decided to compete in the election, individually the students of Dhaka University again made history when they managed to forge an alliance of major political parties, namely United Front or Jukta Front with the Awami League taking a leading role. The United Front was led by Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and AK Fazlul Huq. They went to the people with a 21-point manifesto which highlighted the discrimination faced by the people of Bengal and created by the rulers in West Pakistan. The 21-point manifesto, among others, included complete autonomy of each province as promised in the Lahore resolution of 1946 – only issues related to defence, foreign relations, and foreign currency will be dealt by the centre, Bangla will be one of State Languages of Pakistan, all political prisoners must be released, the judiciary must be separated from the administration, there must be complete land reforms favouring the landless farmers etc. Each and every one of the 21 points was pro-poor and pro-people. The election was won by the Front by a landslide with only nine seats going to the Muslim League. Fazlul Huq was sworn in as the Chief Minister of East Bengal on Apr 2, 1954, and he formed a cabinet with Sheikh Mujib as one of the members. But the conspiratorial rulers of West Pakistan in a matter of 41 days dissolved the provincial government on May 20, 1954, and imposed the Governor General's Rule in East Pakistan and arrested most of the leaders of the United Front. This may be seen as a victory of the people of East Bengal as it was evident that the West would never allow the people of this part of Pakistan to fight for their legitimate rights. It was evident that the rulers sitting in the West would never yield to the legitimate demands of the people of Eastern wing, they were born to be subjugated, the rulers thought wrongfully.

Following the dissolution of the 1954 provincial government of East Pakistan, Khawaja Nazimuddin became Governor General. His successor Ghulam Mohammad dissolved the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan in 1956. General Ayub Khan seized power in October 1958 and declared Martial Law. Thus began the long journey towards the disintegration of Pakistan. Ayub as mentioned earlier considered Sheikh Mujib as his sworn enemy and did everything to annihilate him. In the meantime, the disparity between the two wings of Pakistan's continued to grow. Eighty percent of the export earnings of Pakistan came from jute and tea produced in the Eastern wing but of development budget, Eastern wing never got more than 30 percent. Pakistan changed its Federal Capital thrice, Karachi to Rawalpindi and built a completely new city called Islamabad as its capital coming from the export earning of East Pakistan.

Maulana Bhashani, who was the founding President of the Awami League, left the party in 1957 floating his own National Awami Party (NAP), preaching his so-called Islamic Socialism. United Front also disintegrated. Awami League President Suhrawardy died in a hotel in Beirut under mysterious circumstance. Earlier, all major political leaders of Pakistan formed an anti-Ayub alliance called National Democratic Front (NDF). Mujib thought without the leadership of Suhrawardy, NDF will be meaningless. Other political parties were remerging and so should Awami League, thought Mujib, as the party secretary.

Following the 1965 India-Pakistan war, an all-party national alliance was formed and the alliance announced a conference in Lahore on Feb 6, 1966, currently known as the Magna Carta of the emancipation of the people of East Bengal. It is said the six-point programme was drafted by Mujib himself and it highlighted the legitimate rights of the people of not only of people of East Bengal but also the people of the other four provinces of Pakistan. Sheikh Mujib, accompanied by Tajuddin Ahmad, left for Lahore on Feb 4. In total, there were 21 representatives from East Pakistan and 600 from West Pakistan. Mujib raised the six-point demand on Feb 10 in the Subject Committee meeting but the committee rejected the six points. West Pakistan media wrote Mujib wanted to separate East Pakistan from Pakistan.

The next day, Mujib and his small team left Lahore for Dhaka and at the airport explained to the waiting journalists what was in his six-point programme. There was nothing new, he said. He wanted (a) Pakistan will be a Federal State and will have a parliamentary form of government; (b) the centre will retain the power of defence and foreign policy and other matters will be left to the provinces; (c) regarding monetary policy, Mujib advocated two options – the first is two different types of currency will be announced for both the wings or there may be one currency for the entire country provided that the transfer of capital from one wing to the other will have to be separately accounted for; (d) each province will be sovereign in deciding upon levying of taxes; (e) foreign trade of each province will be decided by the provinces themselves and the centre will get a just share of export earning and finally (f) each province will have the power to raise regional armed forces and paramilitary forces.

Not all Awami League leaders endorsed Mujib's six-point programme. On Mar 13, 1966, the six-point programme was tabled before the Working Committee of the Awami League and was adopted by the majority. Unfortunately, the Awami League President Abdur Rashid Tarkabagish did not endorse the six-point programme and left the party.

On Mar 20, 1966, the Awami League in a special council meeting reorganised the nomination of Sheikh Mujib as the President and Tajuddin Ahmad as the General Secretary. Immediately after the council meeting, Sheikh Mujib and his colleagues toured different parts of the country explaining to the people the genesis of the six-point demand. He described the six-point programme as the "key to our survival". On May 6, 1966, Mujib was arrested from Naryanganj while publicising his six-point programme. On Jun 6, 1966, the budget session of East Pakistan was on in Dhaka. The Awami League members in the assembly boycotted the session and called for a general strike on the following day. The next day was eventful for the people of East Pakistan. The call for a general strike was successful throughout the country but 11 people were killed in police firing in different parts of the country, though the number was perceived to be much higher. Jun 7, 1966, was a turning point in Pakistan's political history as well as in the history of the people of East Bengal.

Charges of sedition were brought against Mujib and soon a so-called Agartala Conspiracy Case was filed against him and many others by Ayub followed by the mass movement of 1969. Ayub was compelled to release Mujib and his colleagues, the case was withdrawn. Soon Ayub was removed from power by General Yahya Khan who announced the general election of 1970 for the formulation of a new constitution. Mujib declared that the Awami League will contest in the election and the six-point programme will be his election manifesto. Yahya announced that if the new constitution does not satisfy him, he will dissolve parliament and bin the draft (under a Legal Frame Work). Many asked Mujib how he proposes to go ahead with the election with his six-point programme. He publicly said once his party gets a majority in parliament, he will just shred the LFO into pieces and frame the constitution based on the six-point programme. The rest is history. The Awami League won the election, led the War of Independence and framed the constitution based on the six-point programme. The difference is this time he did not have to think of a united Pakistan. He who became the Father of the Nation gave a constitution to a sovereign nation – Bangladesh. Jun 7 is observed as the Six-Point Day in Bangladesh every year. Tributes to the Father of the Nation and to those who gave their lives for the realisation of the six-point demand on Jun 7, 1966.