Shape your souls with spirit of sacrifice, PM tells BCL activists

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday asked the leaders and activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) to build them with the mentality of sacrifice to better serve the people of the country, reports UNB.

"Stay above personal demands and gains, hold the mentality of sacrifice, follow the path of ideology and keep up the ideology of Chhatra League to build yourselves for giving something to the people of this country so that the departed soul of the Father of the Nation can rest in peace," she said.

The Prime Minister was addressing a discussion organised by BCL at her official residence Ganobhaban marking the National Mourning Day.

She said if anyone wants to build himself/herself worthy solider of Bangabandhu’s ideology, that person must work as a dedicated activist like him to work for the country and its people upholding his ideology. "The Father of the Nation served the country and its people sacrificing everything in his life. We have to take a vow to work for that country and its people."

The Prime Minister said all have to think how much they gave for the country and its people for which Bangabandhu sacrificed his life.

Without ideology and principle, she said, no one can become a true leader. "One may become a leader for the time being, but that leadership can’t give anything to the country and the nation." 

Sheikh Hasina said gaining the love and trust of people is the biggest achievement for any political leader. "And Bangabandhu had achieved that for which the people of the country as well as the world still remember him."

She said Bangabandhu’s killers had not only killed him, but also wanted to erase the country’s history and make Bangladesh a failed state. “But they’ve failed to do that as Bangabandhu and Bangladesh history are very much rooted to then common people.”

Hasina mentioned the conspirators killed Bangabandhu as he liberated the country and built the war-ravaged country on a solid ground in just three and a half years.

"Had Bangabandhu been alive, the country would have been a developed and prosperous one in just 10 years. It would have been free from hunger and poverty, turned into ‘Sonar Bangla’ which was his lifelong dream," she said.

The Prime Minister highlighted the sacrifice of her mother Bangamata Fazilatunnesa Mujib, saying, “My mother throughout her life led a simple life even after Bangabandhu became the prime minister.”

Bangamata even did not try to escape death but embraced it during the carnage on August 15, 1975, she said.

Praising the role of BCL in all the past political movements, Hasina said all the successes of the people of Bangladesh came through the sacrifices of BCL leaders and workers.

BCL President Rezwanul Haque Chowdury Shovon and General Secretary Golam Rabbani, among others, spoke on the occasion.

A one-minute silence was observed to show respects to the martyrs of the August 15 massacre.