Newsman: Bangladesh has set a world record for a giant portrait of its founding leader, father of the nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, as it kicked off celebrations to mark the centenary year of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s birthday and its 50th anniversary of independence on Wednesday. The Guinness Book of World Records recognized the effort earlier on Tuesday.
Nearly 150 people completed the 400-meter-long portrait of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman — the father of Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina — by planting purple and green rice on 13 hectares of paddy fields in Bogura, nearly 196 kilometers from the capital Dhaka.
“The crop mosaic depicts the father of the nation of Bangladesh, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and was to commemorate the 100th anniversary on March 17,” it said on its website.
Historians in the country described the honor as “unique.”
‘Sheikh Mujib,’ as he is known, was born on March 17, 1920, in the Gopalganj district, 210 kilometers from Dhaka. He was given the title of Bangabandhu (Friend of Bengal) for his role during the struggle leading up to Bangladesh’s independence in 1971. A year later, he became the first president of the war-torn country, governing Bangladesh for three years until he was assassinated in a coup by a group of derailed army officers. Except two daughters of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who were abroad during the planned assassination all the family members including a child son were killed on Aug. 15, 1975.
“It’s an initiative to observe Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s birth centenary. About 130 women and 20 men were employed for the portrait, which took more than two weeks to make,” A.F.M. Bahauddin Nasim, ruling Awami League Party (ALP) leader and convener of the project, told to international News media.
“We have taken the land on lease for seven months to build the unique portrait on the auspicious occasion of his birth centenary and the golden jubilee of our independence,” he added.
Sheikh Hasina, one of his two daughters, took over the helm of the ALP after being appointed prime minister in 1996, and declared Aug. 15 as a holiday and national day of mourning to honor ‘father of the Nation’s memory.
The government has pulled out all the stops to celebrate Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s centenary year, with Nasim dedicating the portrait to the country’s 170 million residents.
“We wanted to project the importance of the father of the nation to the world in a different way. This initiative will reignite the spirit of freedom and independence,” Nasim said.
“Bangabandhu was born in a middle-class farming family. So, on his birth centenary, the country’s farmers portrayed his image through the crops in the field. There is no better way to convey our respects to the great leader,” Ajoy Dasgupta, a journalist and historian, told Arab News.
“It was his dream to make an independent Bangladesh that would be also recognized as a rich nation. Soon, we are going to be a middle-income range country. So, with this record, the world will see once again what a great leader he was,” Dasgupta added.
Muntasir Mamoon, a historian and Dhaka University professor, said it was Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s dream to build a “secular nation.”
“On Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s birth centenary, we should uphold the spirit of secularism. If we fail, all of our achievements in the last 50 years will be severely limited,” Mamoon told Arab News.
He said that the record-breaking portrait will “reunite” the nation and keep the spirit of independence alive.
Bangladesh marked the start of 10 days of celebrations on Wednesday with Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s two-day visit to the country.
Solih, the first foreign leader to join the celebrations, will be joined by heads of state from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and India in coming days. Several other world leaders are set to visit Bangladesh later this month to participate in the grand celebrations to mark the golden jubilee of the country’s independence from Pakistan.
