Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed stated that if political factions begin debating who owns the July uprising after being liberated from autocracy, the spirit of July will ultimately belong to no one.

He made these remarks on Wednesday (August 5) at the inauguration ceremony of the historic July Uprising Memorial Museum in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in the capital.

“We have witnessed the world’s most heinous killings and the most horrific autocracy,” the Home Minister said, reflecting on his personal experience. “If we look at Aynaghar, where I spent 61 days – even a wild animal could not survive there for 24 hours, yet human beings were kept there.

My brother Mir Quasem and his son, Barrister Arman, remain traumatized. I was a friend of his father, and we served time in prison together. When I asked why he returned, he told me he came back to save his son from being taken away. He was eventually executed, and his son was taken as well. I am living history – a father returned to save his child, but could not.”

“After gaining freedom from such a regime, if we start claiming ownership over July, then July will belong to no one,” he cautioned. “We must overcome this mindset. Many nations across the globe struggle for a century without ever achieving freedom.

Vladimir Lenin once said, ‘There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.’ We brought that moment to reality. Revolution and mass uprisings do not fall like Newton’s apple on their own; that apple had to be plucked and ripened. There must be no room for politicization anywhere.”

Responding to remarks made by Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mia Golam Parwar regarding the implementation of the referendum’s public mandate, Salahuddin Ahmed invited all parties for discussion, stating, “Let us sit together. We invited you to join the Constitution Reform Committee, but you have not submitted names yet. We held our first meeting yesterday. We pledge that every single letter of the July National Charter will be implemented.”

The Home Minister noted that when movements are denied systematic and democratic avenues, violent and bloody uprisings become inevitable, as was the case in Bangladesh.

“If we ignore the stepping stones built from 2009 to 2024, did Newton’s apple simply fall during those 36 days of July? No,” he remarked. “I urge our friends to understand that politics based solely on exploiting the July spirit will not work. Sheikh Hasina ended up in Delhi by repeatedly exploiting the spirit of 1971.

I have said many times that the political death of Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League occurred in Dhaka, and their burial took place in Delhi.”

“They dragged Bangladesh to a point where people began to despise the phrase ‘spirit of the Liberation War.’ We must conduct politics in a way that ensures the spirit of July is never disrespected. July belongs to all of us – to the 20 crore people of Bangladesh. Some of us may have provided leadership, but those who embraced martyrdom are the true July warriors and leaders,” he concluded.