The 77th founding anniversary of Bangladesh Awami League, one of the oldest and most traditional political parties in the subcontinent, is today, Tuesday (June 23).

On this historic day in 1949, a new horizon began in the political context of the then East Pakistan. The ‘East Pakistan Awami Muslim League’ emerged as the first major opposition party of the then Pakistan through a political workers’ conference at the historic Rose Garden in KM Das Lane in Old Dhaka, Dhaka. This political party was born out of an indomitable desire to achieve the rights of the people of East Bengal against the injustice, injustice and exploitation of the then ruling class, which later became the main driving force of the independence struggle of Bangladesh.

A review of the history of the party’s establishment shows that in that historic first council held in Dhaka’s Rose Garden, Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani was unanimously elected as the first president of the party and Shamsul Haque as the general secretary. At that historic moment, the rising and energetic young leader of Bengal, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was spending his life in a Pakistani prison. However, the then political leadership did not forget his contribution. While in prison, this visionary young leader was unanimously elected to the important post of ‘Joint Secretary’ of the newly formed First Committee, which later paved the way for him to become a national leader.

The councils of 1953 and 1955 were two very important chapters in the organizational expansion of the party and the transformation of its non-communal political ideology. In 1953, the Second National Council of the Awami Muslim League was held in Mymensingh. In this council, Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani was re-elected as the President and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was appointed as the General Secretary of the party for the first time. Then, from 21 to 23 October 1955, the third National Council session of the party was held at the historic Roopmahal Cinema Hall in Sadarghat, Dhaka. In this council, the word ‘Muslim’ was permanently dropped from the party’s original name in order to give the party a more non-communal, progressive and universal form. The new name was ‘East Pakistan Awami League’. Later, after the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent and sovereign state through the Great Liberation War in 1971, the party was finally named ‘Bangladesh Awami League’.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the main figure of the Bengali freedom movement, was elected the president of the party on March 1, 1966. Just before this, he announced the historic ‘Six Points’ program known as the charter of Bengali liberation. Under the strong and uncompromising leadership of Bangabandhu, this party achieved an absolute majority in the general elections of 1970 and achieved the independence of Bangladesh through the Great Liberation War of 1971. Later, in the special council of the Awami League held in February 1981, Bangabandhu’s worthy daughter Sheikh Hasina was unanimously elected the president of the party. After returning home after his exile, he took charge of the party and from that time till today, he has been fulfilling the duties of the party’s president with great efficiency for more than four decades.

However, after a long journey of history, the current political situation of the party has taken a completely different form. After various political ups and downs, controversies and the recent mass uprising, a kind of stagnation has come in the party’s activities. In the existing political and administrative reality of the country, all types of institutional and public political activities of the Bangladesh Awami League are currently legally prohibited. As a result, the party’s 77th founding anniversary is being celebrated very quietly without any formal or public gathering-based programs.