Padma Bridge . . . the new story we write today

Moments of pride in Bangladesh, indeed for Bangladesh, have come aplenty. As a people we have struggled, under astute political leadership as exemplified by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the enlightened, dedicated men of the Mujibnagar government, to give to ourselves a happy place in the sun.

And we have succeeded, despite all the crude attempts by men seizing power on the strength of might based on weaponry, by men and women doing all they could to push us away from our history and therefore from our heritage. We went to war for freedom and lost three million of our compatriots. And yet we drove the enemy from our land. We were present at the creation --- of our sovereign People’s Republic of Bangladesh.

Pride was ours. And pride is ours today as we experience the glorious inauguration of the Padma Bridge, spanning the banks of the mighty river, by the Prime Minister. Sheikh Hasina is today emblematic of all the good that political dedication can bring forth in an outlining and implementation of programmes geared to an ensuring of the public good.

It is a bridge, just a bridge, we celebrate today. And why do we celebrate it, given that bridges are to be spotted all across the world, that people go across them at all hours of the day and the night? The answer is simple: for far too long, we as a people have been burdened by the opprobrium of being a poverty-driven country, an international basket case, a land where coups and corruption have been a sad story. The Padma Bridge is therefore more than a bridge. It is a message of national renewal.

The Padma Bridge is a new story we write today. We do that because we have built the bridge with our own resources, with our own national determination to impress upon the world the truth that the image of Bangladesh is not what they have always considered it to be. When the World Bank, on the basis of reports the veracity of which were to be misplaced and proved wrong, arrogantly told us it could not fund the building of the bridge, we did not lose heart. When critics, homegrown and foreign, mocked the government’s plan of raising the bridge over the waters of the Padma on its own as pretension, we did not let go of our confidence.

And we did not because there was the political leadership to instill courage and conviction in us. This morning, as the waves rise and fall all over and across the Padma, it is the manifestation of that leadership we will experience. The Padma Bridge is, in more ways than one, proof of leadership at its purposeful best. It is, again, evidence of how a struggling nation can put shoulder to wheel and climb the forbidding heights. For a people with a rich history of struggle and success behind the struggle, the bridge is one more shining instance of the spirit of Bengali nationalism reshaping and reinventing of life for all of us in this beautiful country.

The benefits to be derived from the Padma Bridge are out there, laid out for the world to glimpse. It makes movement to the south-west of the country faster than it has ever been. It has tamed the mighty river and now promises the growth of industry in the twenty-one districts it links with the rest of the country. It is a call for a generation of employment for the young, a hint that life need not be uprooted from tradition, that people can be participants of progress in their home regions.

The bridge enhances the quality of tourism, invites citizens to travel to the diverse regions of the country for a full and unfettered comprehension of the aesthetics defining the cultural ambience and diversity of Bangladesh. It is an invitation to people from overseas --- to come to our land and savour the richness it has on offer.

This morning, all the poetry we have woven across time around the Padma, all the riotous waves of it that have lapped away at its banks, all the spiritual yearning to go over to its other bank, from the bank where we have imagined the beauty on the other side of the river, come alive in the depths of our collective soul.

We will cross the Padma Bridge, even as we inform ourselves that it is our bridge to the future, a bridge to the many bridges we envision in the imagination, those that will take this country ahead in the larger interests of the generations to be.

The Padma Bridge is the song we render in chorus today. It is glory linking us to glories past. It is the link to what is yet to be in the times ahead.

It is time to sing, loud and clear, of the spirit of Joy Bangla once again.

The writer is an independent journalist and biographer.

He can be contacted at ahsan.syedbadrul@gmail.com