Today is March 26, the Independence Day of Bangladesh. On the occasion of our great Independence and National Day, I extend my heartfelt greetings and warm felicitations to my fellow countrymen living at home and abroad. On this historic day, I recall with profound respect the architect of our independence, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. I pay my deep homage to the martyrs and valiant sons of the soil, who made the supreme sacrifice in the War of Liberation. I also recall with deep reverence our four National Leaders, valiant freedom-fighters, organizers, supporters, our foreign friends, and people from all walks of life who made immense contributions to attain our right to self-determination and the war of liberation. The contributions of all would be written in golden letters in the history of our independence forever. We have achieved our hard-earned independence through huge sacrifice. Bangabandhu always cherished a dream of building a happy and prosperous country along with achieving political emancipation. Immediately after the independence, he had taken all our steps in rebuilding the economy of the war-ravaged country. Keeping that in mind, the present government has been rendering untiring efforts in materializing the dream of Bangabandhu. After long struggle Bangladesh is now moving towards development and prosperity. Besides, the overall development, the implementation of mega projects like Padma Bridge, Metro Rail and Nuclear Power Plant are going on. With the launching of Bangladesh Satellite, we have cemented our place in the space. We are dreaming of a developed Bangladesh by the year 2041. Bangladesh is now being branded as a role model for outstanding success in socio-economic development. In pursuing our diplomatic objectives, the government has been consistent in upholding the principle of "Friendship to all, malice towards none" as enunciated by Father of the Nation. Our achievement in international arena is also commendable. Our expatriate Bangladeshis have also been making significant contributions to our national economy through sending their hard-earned remittances. Nevertheless, we have to go a long way for achieving the desired goals of independence. We must ensure good governance, social justice, transparency and accountability to make the development people oriented and sustainable. Democracy and development complements each other. Jatiya sangsad and the government have started the new journey after the 11th parliamentary election. Collective initiative is necessary to implement the development ideas of the government and make the parliament meaningful. I hope that national parliament would be the center of hopes and aspiration of the people. For this, the ruling party as well as the opposition would have to play construction role. Present government has set ‘Vision 2021' and ‘Vision 2041' respectively to materialize Bangabandhu's dream of transforming Bangladesh into ‘Sonar Bangla'. Sincere and collective efforts are imperative to implement the programmes. Imbued with the spirit of War of Liberation and democratic values, let us work together irrespective of party affiliation to make our heard-earned independence more meaningful. Let this be the pledge on the Independence and National Day. Khoda Hafez, May Bangladesh Live Forever. Md. Abdul Hamid
