Gen Yahya’s Mar 1 speech heralded end of Pakistan

The abrupt postponement of the National Assembly session by President Yahya Khan on March 1 of 1971 was a historical mystery, geographical absurdity and political blunder on the part of the Pakistani rulers. It was the beginning of the end of the existence of Pakistan as a State.
When people in Pakistan were waiting to see the inaugural session of the Pakistan National Assembly in Dhaka and eager to see Sheikh Mujib, the elected leader of the majority of the members of the National Assembly (MNA), play his role as a statesman, the Pakistan military Junta leader Yahya Khan suddenly addressed the nation and postponed sine die the scheduled session of the Assembly. In fact, that was the beginning of the end of the existence of Pakistan as a State, which got its independence from British India in 1947, based on religion. That also heralded the beginning of the independent and sovereign Bangladesh.
History has it that in the general elections in December 1970, Awami League, led by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, had bagged majority of seats in the Pakistan National Assembly. President Yahya Khan fixed March 3, 1971 as the date for the inaugural session of the Assembly in Dhaka.
"But a deep conspiracy was hatched to foil the verdict of the people of Bangladesh. And as part of that President Yahya Khan on March 1 of 1971 in an impromptu address to the nation postponed sine die the scheduled inaugural session of the Assembly and Bangladesh was thrown into flames by Yahya Khan's sudden announcement," senior journalist Amir Hossain said in his memoirs and added, "I had the privilege to cover about 150 public meetings of Bangabandhu across the country before and after the 1970 elections. On March 1, a test cricket match was in progress at the Dhaka stadium. No sooner had the announcement come on air at 1:00pm, people ransacked the stadium and came out with slogans in favour of independence. Bangabandhu and his party colleagues were holding a meeting then at Hotel Purbani in Motijheel. Angry demonstrators gathered there in thousands and raised various slogans."
He writes a few years back, "I had the opportunity to cover Bangabandhu's speech as a senior staff reporter of the daily Ittefaq. Long 44 years have elapsed since March 7 of 1971, but the whole scenario including the mammoth gathering of freedom loving people and the epoch-making address by Bangabandhu, the poet of politics, are still fresh in my mind."
"Bangabandhu in a brief address to them protested the postponement of the Parliament session and urged the people to unite against the conspiracy. On March 2 students hoisted the new 'National flag of Bangladesh' on Dhaka University campus," he writes.
In protest against the military junta's conspiracy against Bangalees, Bangabandhu launched a non-cooperation movement and called for countrywide 6:00am to 2:00pm hartal everyday from March 2 to March 6. On March 3 Swadhin Bangla Chhatra Sangram Parishad revealed the 'Manifesto of Independence' at a public meeting at Paltan Maidan, according to Amir.
Since the beginning of the Non-Cooperation Movement the administration of Pakistani rulers had virtually collapsed and Bangladesh was being run under the directives of Bangabandhu. Especially after his historic March 7 speech everybody in Bangladesh took him as the lawful and real ruler of Bangladesh. It was due to this fact that the then Chief Justice of Dhaka High Court Justice BA Siddiqui refused to administer oath of office to 'Butcher of Baluchistan' General Tikka Khan who was appointed as the governor of the then 'East Pakistan' replacing moderate Shahebzada Yakub Khan, Amir said.
As an adolescent Mujib witnessed the ravages of the Second World War and the stark realities of the great famine of 1943 in which about five million people lost their lives. He saw the legendary revolutionary Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose challenging the British Raj. Also about this time he came to know the works of Bernard Shaw, Karl Marx, Rabindranath Tagore and rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam, all these memories made him an extra ordinary one to understand the peoples pulse.
Journalist Cyril Dunn once said of him, "In the thousand -year history of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujib is the only leader who has, in terms of blood, race, language, culture and birth, been a full-blooded Bangali. His physical stature was immense. His voice was redolent of thunder. His charisma worked magic on people. The courage and charm that flowed from him made him a unique superman in these times."Newsweek magazine has called him the poet of politics.
The leader of the British humanist movement, the late Lord Fenner Brockway once remarked, "In a sense, Sheikh Mujib is a greater leader than George Washington, Mahatma Gandhi and De Valera."
The icon journalist of Egypt, Hasnein Heikal (former editor of Al Ahram and close associate of late President Nasser) has said, "Sheikh Mujibur Rahman does not belong to Bangladesh alone. He is the harbinger of freedom for all Bengalis. His Bengali nationalism is the new emergence of Bengali civilization and culture. Mujib is the hero of the Bengalis, in the past and in the times that are."