Bangabandhu, Tajuddin . . . and October 1974

Syed Badrul AhsanSyed Badrul Ahsan
Published : 25 Oct 2021, 03:46 PM
Updated : 25 Oct 2021, 03:46 PM

On Oct 26, 1974, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, through an official memo, instructed Tajuddin Ahmad, finance minister in his government, to submit his resignation from the cabinet. Tajuddin Ahmad lost little time in responding to his leader's message. He resigned and went home. He lapsed into silence and was not to be part of the government again. Neither was he to have any role in the new political structure arising in the country through the adoption of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution in January 1975.

Tajuddin's departure from the cabinet was as heart-breaking as it was tragic. In the first place, it brought to an end the long partnership he and Bangabandhu had forged over the years in articulating the demand for full regional autonomy for East Bengal in pre-1971 Pakistan, followed by the armed struggle for independence in the aftermath of the crackdown by the Pakistan army in March 1971. In the second, Tajuddin's resignation was soon to open the floodgates to disaster for the country.

In Bangladesh's history, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Tajuddin Ahmad were a team, a brotherhood that would shape the movement for eventual Bengali liberation through the 1960s and early 1970s. The visionary, indeed the inspirational in Bangabandhu was complemented by the nature of policy implementation that was Tajuddin's forte. In terms of broad history, their relationship was to be compared to the political links which Mao Zedong had with Zhou En-lai in China, Gandhi and Nehru had in India and De Gaulle and Andre Malraux had in France.

In the heady 1960s, the formulation of the Six Points and their public announcement by Bangabandhu in Lahore in February 1966 were quickly followed by Tajuddin Ahmad's activism in disseminating the points throughout the length and breadth of East Bengal/East Pakistan. Tajuddin's loyalty to Bangabandhu was a factor in all that he did in light of the Six Points announcement. Indeed, before the Six Points were made public, Tajuddin impressed a group of young Bengali economists entrusted with the responsibility of drafting the points with his incisive queries on them.

The economists were later to remark on the intellectual that Tajuddin Ahmad was. It was this intellectual aspect of the Tajuddin personality which brought him close to Bangabandhu, to a point where the civil-military establishment based in Rawalpindi knew full well that behind the paramount leader of the Bengalis was an astute political associate unwilling to take any nonsense in politics. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was mortally afraid of Tajuddin Ahmad's grasp of politics, so much so that he warned General Yahya Khan, as the junta leader prepared to travel to Dhaka for talks with Bangabandhu, to keep an eye on Tajuddin. In the March 1971 negotiations in Dhaka, Tajuddin ably supported Bangabandhu in responding to all questions fielded by the junta and the leadership of the Pakistan People's Party. He minced no words. The Pakistanis found in him a tough negotiator.

As Bangabandhu bade farewell to Tajuddin even as the Pakistan military prepared to strike Bengalis late on Mar 25, 1971, he knew the future of the nation was in safe hands. In the course of the non-cooperation movement over the preceding twenty-five days, it was Tajuddin who drafted the daily directives to be followed by the nation, had those directives discussed and approved by Bangabandhu before releasing them to the media. The two men trusted each other, enough to know how they worked in tandem with each other without having to say so. It was teamwork, having formally taken form and substance in March 1966 when Bangabandhu took over as president of the Awami League and Tajuddin replaced him as general secretary of the party.

It is hard to say what might have happened in 1971, once Bangabandhu had been detained and flown to West Pakistan, had Tajuddin Ahmad not been around. As he made his way out of Dhaka, in the company of Barrister Amir-ul Islam, Tajuddin had no illusions about what he needed to do. And that was to have a government in place. He did the job marvellously well and despite all the intrigues mounted to push him from office as prime minister, Tajuddin did not flinch. Everything his government did, every plan it formulated and put into implementation, was a sign of the meticulous work Tajuddin did and expected the rest of the Mujibnagar government to do.

The tragedy of Tajuddin Ahmad remains part of our sad history, though, as we reflect on his partnership with Bangabandhu. The Young Turks at Mujibnagar refused to acknowledge his leadership of the guerrilla struggle for Bangladesh by forming a force parallel to the Mukti Bahini; and conspiratorial elements like Khandakar Mushtaque and his ilk were determined to undermine the wartime prime minister at every turn. Their hostility was intensified once the Father of the Nation returned home from Pakistani captivity in January 1972. Be it recalled that it was Tajuddin whom Bangabandhu called from London on 8 January to come by a picture of the new realities in the new country.

But that did not stop Tajuddin's enemies in their tracks. The widening of the rift between Bangabandhu and Tajuddin had little to do with each other but everything to do with intrigue fashioned locally and abroad to drive a wedge between them. Tajuddin's departure from the cabinet left Bangabandhu without a confidant in the power structure. The conspirators closed in around him. It was reminiscent of Julius Caesar left facing his assassins with Mark Antony being away.

As we travel back to newspaper images of those last few months before all-enveloping tragedy consumed Bangladesh, it is questionable characters like Taheruddin Thakur who are ubiquitous around Bangabandhu. Mushtaque and his camp are happy — and busy. Again, men who had played a role in the murder of Chile's Salvador Allende wanted nothing better than the removal of the socialist Tajuddin Ahmad from the government. And all of these elements in the end succeeded in pushing Bangladesh into deepening darkness.

Despite his exit from the government, Tajuddin Ahmad kept in touch with Bangabandhu, though he felt little need to return to high political office. Bangabandhu was certainly not a happy man with Tajuddin out of the scene and it is believed he wanted his closest political ally to come back to the big tent. It remains testimony to Tajuddin's political integrity that he spurned, after October 1974, all offers from other political parties to join them. He abhorred thoughts of forming his own party in opposition to that headed by his leader.

About a fortnight before the tragedy of mid-August 1975, warned by an individual close to him (and this is what Zohra Tajuddin told this writer) that Bangabandhu should be asked to take precautions since his life was in imminent danger, Tajuddin made his nocturnal way to 32 Dhanmondi to let Bangabandhu know of the conspiracy shaping up. A supremely confident Sheikh Mujibur Rahman laughed it off, asking Tajuddin not to worry and to go home.

There is reason to believe, though — and this is based on a conversation between this writer and Dr Kamal Hossain — that Bangabandhu was busy at work to bring Tajuddin Ahmad back into the government. As Kamal Hossain, preparing to set out on a European tour on the government's behalf in July 1975, bade goodbye to Bangabandhu at Ganabhaban, the Father of the Nation let him in on a secret: by the time Kamal Hossain returned from abroad, he told the foreign minister, Tajuddin Ahmad would be back in the cabinet.

But that was not to be. Conspiracy emerged triumphant. The assassins and their patrons knew only too well that with Bangabandhu dead, there was a real chance that Tajuddin Ahmad could turn into a focal point of resistance to political illegitimacy. They killed him, along with his Mujibnagar colleagues, in early November.

It is interesting to recall that a few days after Tajuddin Ahmad's resignation from the government, Henry Kissinger came calling. At a banquet in his honour, as Syed Najmuddin Hashim — civil servant, ambassador, minister — told this writer, the US secretary of state was observed in intense conversation with Khandakar Mushtaque. Was that a conversation as usual? Or was it a discussion of the finer points of the tragedy that would soon come to pass?

After Oct 26, 1974, Bangladesh's detractors, the enemies of its nationalistic spirit, went cheerfully into the job of undermining the state. The distance between Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Tajuddin Ahmad damaged this nation irreparably. We are yet paying the price.