State Minister for Cultural Affairs KM Khalid on Friday said the government has been implementing different initiatives to promote cultural activities at the grassroots level of the country. “The cultural practices can be one of the tools to prevent moral degradation of the youth and resist terrorism and militancy.  So, the government continues taking and implementing initiatives to promote cultural practices at the grassroots,” he said. The state minister said this while inaugurating the two-day inter-school cultural competition at St. Joseph International School in the city’s Mohammadpur. Also Read: Bhupen Hazarika's songs inspired our freedom fighters: KM Khalid He said once larger cultural activities were seen in the rural areas unlike now.  Khalid thanked St. Joseph International School for arranging the cultural competition and festival. Naimur Rahman Durjoy MP and noted artist Sujit Mustafa also spoke at the function presided over by Principal of the school Br. Chandan B Gomes, said a PID handout.    

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday stressed the need for spreading the country’s vibrant cultural activities like fairs and festivals to every district to attract the young generation to Bengali language, literature, and culture. “Once cultural events and discussions and literature practices used to be held in every district and sub-district in the past. But this practice has largely declined. It’s essential to resume these to glorify our culture,” she said. The Prime Minister made the remarks while inaugurating the Amar Ekushey Book Fair-2022, the annual event of booklovers and publishers, in the capital. She opened the country’s biggest book fair, joining its inaugural ceremony at the Bangla Academy virtually from her official residence Ganobhaban in the afternoon. Hasina said if such activities can be resumed, many grassroots talented poets, artists, littérateurs, and cultural activists would get the scope to flourish their talents, and people will also be able to meet their physiological needs at the same time. “We’ve ensured food security. Now we need to fulfill the psychological demands…If such fairs or events over our culture, art, and literature are held, the young generation won’t go astray anymore as they’ll also remain committed to Bangladesh, Bengali language, literature, and culture,” said the PM. She said though it is essential to learn a foreign language and culture, it is most important to promote one’s own roots and culture first paying special attention to glorify and expand Bengali cultural practices further.    Read: PM inaugurates Ekushey Book Fair-2022

Recalling the significant contributions of cultural activities to every national struggle since the Language Movement, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday said powerful poems are stronger tools to motivate people as those reach their hearts. “Many untold words are expressed through poems. It shows the paths in many struggles,” she said. The Prime Minister said this while addressing Bangabandhu National Recitation Festival 2020-22 and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib National Recitation Medal 2020-22 Conferring Ceremony. Read: Looking forward to working together with India for 50 years and beyond: Hasina to Modi She inaugurated the festival, joining the programme held at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy here virtually from her official residence Ganobhaban.   Hasina said a poem can motivate people much more than what the words of a politician can do. “It reaches the hearts of people through poems, songs, dramas and cultural practices in a greater way.” She said the nation witnessed the first blow to its culture and language soon after the emergence of Pakistan and so the struggle for making Bangla as a state language started in 1948. Mentioning the leading role of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in the Language Movement, she said the great leader, who was then a law student of Dhaka University, protested the attacks on Bangla, formed Chhatra League and Bhasa Songram Parishad taking student leaders and Tamaddun Majlish, and called for the movement. She said Bangabandhu with many others was jailed during the 11th March strike in 1948.   Read:No one can ignore Bangladesh now: Hasina Citing the verses ---“The struggle this time is a struggle for emancipation, the struggle this time is a struggle for independence”—of Bangabandhu’s 7th March Speech, she said the historic speech is a timeless poem (Omor Kabita). “Attacks had come down time and again, but Bengali did not sit idle rather protested every time,” said Sheikh Hasina. She said the language of protest had come out through poems when no political activity could be done after the August 15, 1975 assassination.  People were motivated, she said.   

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said that apart from education, the government is paying special attention to sports and cultural activities as part of its efforts to make the children worthy citizens of the country.