India’s Congress party plans to celebrate the golden jubilee celebrations of the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh from July.
The opposition party in India is considering district-level programmes to mark the occasion, a source told The Hindu on Sunday.
The Congress considers the Liberation War of Bangladesh as one of the finest moments of former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, according to a report published by The Hindu on Sunday.
“Politically, it is meant to be an effective counter to BJP’s aggressive nationalism plank by reminding the new generation that Ms. Gandhi was the person who managed to break up Pakistan,” the report said.
The party had planned grassroot-level meets across 650 districts from May 1 to celebrate the occasion, but it got derailed because of the spike in the number of COVID-19 case in the second wave.
The source told The Hindu that the party has reviewed the plan on restarting the programmes if the situation improves by mid-July.
“Invitation cards with the iconic photo of then Pakistani commander Lt. Gen. A.A.K. Niazi signing the surrender document before Lt. Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora and of Ms Gandhi congratulating the chiefs of armed forces including Sam Maneckshaw, have been sent out,” The Hindu said in the report.
The report added that Congress President Sonia Gandhi was invited by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to take part in the March 26 celebrations in Dhaka to commemorate the independence and birth centenary celebrations of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. But Ms Gandhi skipped it because of the pandemic.