Remembering late Syed Muazzem Ali, a freedom fighter diplomat

 

Today is the first death anniversary of the high commissioner of Bangladesh in New Delhi, Syed Moazzem Ali. I was fortunate to serve him during my tenure as defense advisor in New Delhi, India. Events and experiences are knocking my head to remember this great diplomat. I worked with him for a bit over two and a half years and every single day was a learning experience for me. It's not only the diplomacy, but I could discover a very good human being in him: totally bold, experienced, knowledgeable and passionate. The first time I've ever worked with him, it felt as if I've known this person for a long time and share whatever thoughts I had in my mind.

He was a highly accommodative man as he could ensure that everyone was working as a team. Even though everyone was from a different background, everyone felt that they were from a common family. Even after returning to Dhaka from New Delhi, he arranged parties and gatherings with everyone who worked with him over there. He always invited Bangladeshi artists, academicians, think tanks and prominent personalities to Delhi and arranged different programs to project the Bangladeshi culture. Also, he managed to gather key personalities of India in different programs in Bangladesh High Commission. He moved out all probable corporation and potentialities to pursue Bangladeshi interests. Even beside Indian counterparts, he maintained a very good relationship with diplomats from over a hundred countries of the world in New Delhi. He was a favored personality for any diplomats to interact with and thus, most of the time, he was occupied with foreign diplomats in his office. However, he always maintained some sort of special attachments with the Bengali communities from Kolkata, Assam and Tripura just for the uplifting of the Bengali culture and tradition.

He had contributed to take the Bangladesh-India relationship to a great height- from historical land boundary treaty, connectivity, power-sharing, trade and investment, sub-regional and numerous other areas of corporation. In 2018, during the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to New Delhi, he hastily arranged the inauguration of a new road there in the name of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. I am very grateful for his support he gave me during the signing of different MoUs on security, defense and healthcare corporations with India.

Despite his old age, he used to travel a lot in India to explore different areas of corporation for Bangladesh. I accompanied him to a number of visits to different institutions and events in India. His vast experience of diplomacy especially of his tenure at Iran, France, UNESCO in India was quite rich. His wisdom, knowledge and boldness were vividly reflected in of his lectures. He could instantly answer any questions which the audience asked him in a lucid and convincing manner. He was never puzzled.

He was an ardent admirer and follower of Syed Mustofa Ali. He spent a lot of time reading books. He had a vast knowledge on the genesis of Bangladesh war of independence in 1971 as well as the role and contribution of India. Immediately after the war of liberation, the father of the nation faced many challenges with the India-Bangladesh bilateral relationship and Syed Moazzem Ali used to share historical facts similar to the problems faced. He felt that the next generation of people needed to know those facts. Very often we asked him to write a memoir but he could not make time. We were convinced that those facts must be recorded and carried forward for setting up the right course of diplomacy for India-Bangladesh relationship in the future.

The night before he died, I met him last time at the ICU of CMH Dhaka. Honorable prime minster timely honored him sending a nice flower bouquet and praying for his early recovery. Though, I was wearing a mask he didn't take a single moment to recognize and call me by my name. He held my hands tightly and began remembering all our memories back in the Bangladesh High Commission, New Delhi. Being nostalgic, it seemed that the sickness he had was gone from his face: he was smiling, having fun and narrating different stories as he used to do. In the end, holding my hand more tightly, he said, "You are the flag bearer. Please, take the leadership and go forward. You have many responsibilities for the betterment of our nation". I didn't know that these were his last words he would've said to me. The next day, I had to carry his coffin on my shoulders and lay him to rest. He is probably the fourth human being who I could do the same after my father, mother and father-in-law. May Allah grant this great man Jannat.


The writer is the former defense advisor at Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi.