Legal notice to 10 people to remove state religion Islam from the constitution

Legal notices have been sent to 10 concerned people including Awami League General  Secretary, Cabinet Secretary, Secretary of Law Ministry & Secretary of Home Ministry  demanding exclusion of state religion Islam from the constitution and writing of secular introduction.

Advocate of Supreme Court Ashok Kumar Ghosh sent the notice on Sunday (August 16th).

In the notice named as defendants are General Secretary of Bangladesh Nationalist Party,  Secretary General of National Party, Dr. Kamal Hossen.of People's Forum, Hasanul Haque Inu of Bangladesh Socialist Party (JSD), Rashed Khan Menon of the Workers Party.

In the notice he said, 'In 1971, under the leadership of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, we Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Christians and other citizens fought for the independence of East Pakistan in protest of the exploitation, torture and illegal activities of West Pakistanis after 1947.  In our holy constitution of 1972, nationalism, socialism, democracy and secularism were the basic principles in running the state with the spirit of independence.  After the assassination of Bangabandhu in 1975, four years after independence, the principles of the 1972 constitution were changed.  Which was not accepted by the intellectual community and the minority people of independent Bangladesh.  As a result of the addition of state religion in Article 2A of the constitution, non-communal Bangladesh has now become communal Bangladesh.'

'India is now considered a Hindu state for the majority of Hindus and will be constitutionally recognized as a Hindu state in the future.  Therefore, for the non-communal consciousness of the world, Bangladesh must be considered as a non-communal country.  That is why there will be secularism in the 8th article of the holy constitution.  But there will be no state religion Islam.  The notice further said that the bill must be passed by a majority of the members of parliament, including raising the issue in the form of a bill in the National Assembly.  Otherwise, Bangladesh will be recognized by the world as a communal country forever.  Moreover, the dream of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Bahman, the father of the nation and the architect of Bangladesh, will not be realized.'