Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed Joy has called for a boycott of the Bengali-language daily ‘Prothom Alo’ for describing Bangladesh’s War of Independence as an ‘India-Pakistan war’.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son and her ICT adviser gave the call in his Facebook post on Tuesday after the newspaper triggered widespread criticism for this observation in an article on Indian prime minister-elect Narendra Modi.
“I am shocked that Prothom Alo, our largest Bengali newspaper, referred to our War of Liberation as an India-Pakistan war. By doing so they have insulted the memory of 3 million martyrs who were brutally murdered during the war,” Joy wrote in his post.
“I consider this a heinous offence and those responsible must be sacked immediately,” he said.
Joy said he was not surprised by this incident.
“It, however, does not surprise me. If you will recall, during the military regime from 2007-2008 Prothom Alo quite openly backed the dictatorship. They have proven time and again that they do not believe in democracy.
File Photo
“Now they have proven that they do not even believe in Bangladesh. Let us boycott Prothom Alo and send them a message. We will oppose anyone who does not support Bangladesh.”
The newspaper on Saturday published a profile of India’s prime minister nominee Narendra Modi titled ‘Tea-seller to Prime Minister’ in which it said he had “formally joined as an RSS ‘campaigner’ after the India-Pakistan war of 1971”.
Since then the country’s second largest circulated daily has come under a barrage of criticism in social media networks.
Source: Bd news24
While I do not like to add to the credentials of Joy by making comments on his posting, however, I must say that his family dynasty does not support an independent Bangladesh. I am sure, his comments will help increase circulation of Prothom Alo. Keep up Prothom Alo, keep up the good work.
So now we have to take a lesson or two about “democracy” and “patriotism” from Mr. Joy.
Certainly looking from Banglades’s perspective the 1971 war was a war of indepedence for us. But from the Indian perspective 1971 war of the sub-continent was and has been as per their own history book, a India/Pakistan war and therefore, I see no fault with Prothom Alo that in describing Modi’s crdentials, it took perspective of India and not that of Bangladesh.
Let us see how many people respond to Mr. Joy and abandon Prothom Alo.
This message for Joy: Prothom Alo and we believe in Bangladesh but we don’t believe in you or your mother. So go away…don’t take advantage of your grand father’s surname…first prove yourself by achieving something.