The Ministry of Liberation War Affairs has canceled the video interviews of nearly 15,000 freedom fighters conducted under a project, citing non-fulfillment of conditions.
It has been decided that the contractor involved in this work will not be paid. These videos of the interview will also not be saved.
Ministry officials said that after reviewing the videos, they found that the interview videos did not present the ‘correct history’ of the Liberation War. There are various inconsistencies in the videos. The experiences of the freedom fighters were not properly reflected in the videos. These videos have been discarded as they may create a negative perception about the Liberation War if they reach future generations.
Not only the interviews, but the entire project worth about 50 crore taka undertaken during the previous government to preserve the history of the Liberation War has been canceled.
What was the project?
This project was undertaken in 2022 during the Awami League government to spread the experiences of the brave freedom fighters who participated in the Liberation War who are still alive to the next generation. The cost of implementing the project, titled ‘Virer Kantho Bir Gatha’, is estimated at 495.7 million taka.
The project was supposed to produce 80,000 interviews with freedom fighters, 80,000 YouTube content, and 16 documentaries. The project was scheduled to be completed in December 2024, five months before the Awami League was ousted from power in a coup.
A review of the documents shows that a company named Management and Training International Limited (MTI) was awarded the task of producing a documentary based on interviews with freedom fighters. The company signed an agreement with the Ministry of Liberation War on May 16, 2023.
The agreement states that 19 questions will be asked when interviewing freedom fighters. In the video-based interview, 19 criteria are set, such as which sector a freedom fighter fought in, under whose command he participated in the war, where and how he was during the 9 months of the liberation war, whether he had any experience of frontline combat, whether he had received weapons training, and whether he was injured in the war.
According to project officials, MTI has so far produced and submitted 27,428 videos. Of these, 12,788 were submitted during the previous government. They have been preserved in the Bangladesh Film Archive. 14,640 submitted later were discarded during the interim government.
Why cancel?
Project officials say that the videos that were rejected did not meet these criteria.
Afrazur Rahman, project director of the ‘Veer Kanthe Birgatha’ project, told Prothom Alo that the contractor did not follow the standards that were asked to be followed in making videos of freedom fighters.
He said that the interim government took responsibility and asked the contractor to stop making videos, but the contractor did not comply, adding, “That is why their bill has not been paid. The project has been canceled.”
The Awami League government fell on August 5, 2024, in a student uprising. The interim government led by Professor Muhammad Yunus took office three days later, on August 8. Taking charge as the advisor to the Ministry of Liberation War, Faruq-e-Azam ordered the formation of a 10-member committee to scrutinize and select videos based on interviews of brave freedom fighters. The committee was chaired by Ziauddin Ahmed, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Liberation War.