Expatriates Welfare & Overseas Employment Minister Engineer Khondoker Mosharraf Hossain said here yesterday that the Banglaees feel their
existence as a separate entity in our National Anthem composed by poet Rabindranath Tagore.Inaugurating a two-day festival on National Anthem on Zila Parishad office premises here, Mosharraf said that the great song “Amar Sonar Bangla – Ami Tomay Bhalobashi” inspired the whole freedom loving people to take up arms and drive out the Pakistani occupation forces.Mosharraf further said we became the owner of this great National Anthem after much blood shed and sacrifice. We had to acquire this priceless piece of composition of Tagore after a bloody struggle of nine months.The event was organized by National Anthem festival committee formed locally to highlight the historical background, theme and other valuable aspects containing the anthem. The inaugural function was presided over by Prof. Altaf Hossain, convener of the festival committee. Mosharraf said that Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who dreamt of a separate homeland since language movement of1952, nourished this ‘Sangeet’ in his heart which inspired him to play it while he was hoisting our national flag of Swadhin Bangladesh on
Paltan Maidan on March 3 of 1971.Similarly, Bangabandhu’s daughter Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been relentlessly working to preserve its dignity in totality and to infuse its meaning into the people to remain united as Bangalees, Mosharraf added.The function was also addressed among others by DC Abu Hena Morshed Zaman, Police Super Md. Zamil Hassan and miniature artist Mintu Dey.In the function, the minister unveiled the cover pages of two books- ‘Amader Jatiyo Sangeet’ written by cultural activist Selim Alfaz and ‘Dinner in a Moonlit Night, collection of English poems written by AKM
Khalilur Rahman.Miniature artist Mintu Dey delighted the audience with some splendid works done by him which includes one hand written complete Geetanjali works of Tagore sized 1 inch in breadth and 1 and half inches in length, another of smaller hand written complete Agni Bina works of
Nazrul Islam.Display and an exhibition of various rare photos, paintings and needle works have also been arranged in the festival. -BSS, Faridpur
