Dhaka: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday said the appeal of the historic 7th March Speech of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman will never fade away as it will remain as a great source of inspiration for people to make sacrifices for the country.

‘It (speech) will have an everlasting appeal on freedom-loving people. At the same time, we can get great inspiration from this speech to be ideal and patriotic persons in politics and make sacrifice for the country,’ she said while addressing a discussion on the historic 7th March Speech in the city, reports the UNB.

Awami League arranged the discussion at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre marking the historic March 7.

Sheikh Hasina said this historic speech will continue to be played over ages. ‘It still acts as a source of inspiration for people.’

Talking about the most important feature of the historic speech, she said no speech of any other world leader has so much appeal on people like that of the 7th March one. ‘This is why it’s called the best speech of all times,’ she said.

Terming the historic 7th March Speech the most played one in the world, the Prime Minister said it is the only one across the world which still has an appeal. ‘Though many ages have elapsed, this speech still inspires people,’ she added. She said many leaders of different countries delivered speeches. ‘But this speech has become the best one when research was conducted on speeches delivered in the last 2,500 years. Every word and every line of the speech is very important for us,’ said Hasina, also the eldest daughter of the Father of Nation.  

After the assassination of Bangabandhu in 1975, Ziaur Rahman completely banned the playing of the historic speech in Bangladesh as Pakistan occupation forces had not liked it. ‘The subsequent military dictators followed it. Many Awami League leaders and workers even lost their lives while going to play this speech.’

Those who prohibited the playing of the speech are now going to be destroyed gradually and will be destroyed, the Prime Minister said. ‘Those who love Bangladesh being imbued with the spirit of the Liberation War will only survive.’  

‘It was not merely a speech through which he (Bangabandhu) depicted the roadmap for a guerrilla war, talked about the future of Bangladesh and rights of Bangalee nation,’ Hasina said.

She said people had left the rally venue for their own places being inspired with their desired instructions they had got from his speech and followed the instructions exactly.          

The Prime Minister said the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) recognised Bangabandhu’s historic 7th March Speech as a world documentary heritage.

On October 30, 2017, the historic 7th March Speech of the Father of the Nation was included in the Memory of the International World Register, a list of world’s important documentary heritage maintained by Unesco.

AL senior leaders Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Begum Matia Chowdhury, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Mohammad Nasim, Engineer Mosharraf Hossain, Abdur Rahman and AFM Bahauddin Nasim, among others, spoke at the discussion.