Underscoring the importance of learning mother language first, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday urged all to be more aware to uphold the dignity of Bangla.
“I call upon to all uphold the dignity of our mother language which was achieved in exchange for huge blood,” the prime minister said.
She said, “Our children must learn other languages. It’ll be the real education if they first learn mother language and then others. Our society will have to be conscious in this regard.”
Hasina was addressing an event to distribute highest civilian honour Ekushey Padak 2016.
Noting that many mother languages are losing their importance as people choose other languages for interactions with others in their daily life, the prime minister said, “We must not forget our mother language. As we have to learn other languages, so we have to exercise our mother tongue properly.”
The prime minister said, “We’ll have to move ahead with self-confidence and thus further develop and prosper this country so that the Bengali nation have its due place on the global stage with its head high. “Ekushey February (February 21) is not mere a day … it flourishes our spirit and teach us not to bow down our head to injustice.”
She suggested the cultural affairs ministry to project the history of February 21 in various languages of the world.
Noting that the Bengali nation had gained its hard-fought independence in 1971 following the path of February 21, Hasina said: “As a Bengali nation, we’ve unique tradition, characteristics and own literature, arts and culture. We’ll have to retain it and teach our future generation to follow it.”
Recalling with great respect the sacrifices of language martyrs, she said it was father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who had proposed forming ‘Rastrabhasha Sangram Parishad’ (State Language Movement Committee) in 1948 which had initiated the struggle for gaining Bengali as the state language.
Citing that there could not be anything above mother language, she said, “We’ll have to give due respect to our Bengali language so that the nation could be built in such a way.”
About honouring of eminent personalities with Ekushey Padak, Hasina said although this is a humble endeavour to recognise their contributions, but the real aim is to encourage the future generation so that they could follow these personalities and thus love the country, its people, literature, culture, engage in research and cultural practice.