National Citizen Party Convener Nahid Islam on Friday, the 50th anniversary of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's assassination, publicly rejected Mujib's title as the Father of the Nation.
In a post on his verified Facebook account, Nahid acknowledged Mujib's role in securing independence but blamed his leadership for what he described as "a national tragedy" that led to authoritarianism, political violence, and subservience to India.
"Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is not the Father of the Nation. We acknowledge his role and sacrifices in winning independence, but we also remember the national tragedy that unfolded under his rule. Through his leadership, Bangladesh was reduced to a tributary state of India, the anti-people Constitution of 1972 was imposed, and the foundations were laid for looting, political killings, and the one-party BAKSAL dictatorship," Nahid said.
"At the core of the Awami League's fascist politics lies Mujib worship and Liberation War worship, a political idolatry used to oppress the people, plunder the nation, and divide citizens into first-class and second-class. This was nothing less than modern landlordism disguised as democracy. Yet, the Liberation War was the struggle of all the people."
For decades, the Awami League has treated Bangladesh as its ancestral property, ruling without accountability and using Mujib's name to justify every act of corruption and repression, Nahid said.
The People's Uprising of 2024 shattered this landlordism. No person, no family, no ideology will ever again be allowed to strip citizens of their rights or impose fascism on Bangladesh. The "Father of the Nation" title is not history; it is a fascist tool manufactured by the Awami League to silence dissent and monopolise the state.
He also said that Bangladesh belongs equally to all its citizens, and no single person can claim ownership of its birth or its future.
Meanwhile, he also labelled Mujibism as a fascist ideology in the name of Sheikh Mujib and the Liberation War.
"Mujibism is an ideology of fascism and division. It means enforced disappearances, killings, rape, and systematic human rights violations. It means looting the nation's wealth and laundering it abroad. It means Islamophobia, communalism, and the grabbing of minority lands. It means selling national sovereignty to foreign powers. For sixteen years, Mujib was kept politically alive as a weapon, while behind his statue flourished abduction, murder, plunder, and massacre," he added.
"Mujibism is a living danger. Defeating it demands political, ideological, and cultural resistance. Our struggle is to build a Republic, a sovereign, democratic Bangladesh of equal citizens, where no party, no dynasty, and no leader stands above the people. Bangladesh is not anyone's property; it is the people's Republic."
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