Indian Congress party to hold month-long observance

The Indian National Congress will launch a month long programme in India’s all state capitals from next month to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh’s historic 1971 liberation struggle.

“The Congress has a plan to organise a month-long programme in all the state capitals of India from November to commemorate Bangladesh’s 1971 liberation struggle,” Congress leader Captain Praveen Davar told media here on Wednesday.

He said the month-long programme will be culminated in a national programme in New Delhi on December 16, the Victory Day of Bangladesh. Representatives from Bangladesh government will be invited to attend the programme.

Davar disclosed this after inauguration of a photo exhibition organized by Indian National Congress on

‘Bangladesh’s War of Liberation’ in 1971’. He was the in-charge of the exhibition.

Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhu Vadra inaugurated the photo exhibition at the Congress party office at Akbar Road in the Indian national capital yesterday. Hundreds of photos on Bangladesh’s 1971 liberation war are being displayed in the exhibition.

The photos on the meeting of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman with the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Bangabandhu’s historic 7th March speech, photos of freedom fighters and Indian soldiers depicting their courage in the war fields are also put on display, among other pictures.

Besides, the historic photos on the surrender of over 93,000 Pakistani soldiers at the then Race Course Maidan, now Suhrawardy Udayan, and actions of freedom fighters in the war fields are being displayed in the exhibition.

Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, former Defence Minister AK Antony, Senior Party Leader Gulam Nobi Azad, Organising Secretary KC Venugopal and Treasurer Pawan Kumar Bansal, among others, were present on the occasion.

Later, Rahul Gandhi, flanked by his sister Priyanka Gandhi and other party leaders, witnessed the photo exhibition.

Meanwhile, a 10-member committee headed by former Defence Minister AK Antony has been formed to organise several other programmes at all state capitals to mark the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh’s independence.