Dilip Guha ★ Sasraya News, New Delhi : The 80th birthday of Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister, daughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Bangalir Swapnasarathi, Joyotu Sheikh Hasina, was celebrated in New Delhi.
Naya Delhi Nagorikbrindo organised the celebration, held in the presence of expatriate Bangladeshis and senior social and cultural personalities of the capital. The occasion was marked by Rabindra Sangeet, poetry recitation and cake cutting.
A group of overseas Bangladeshis, primarily from Australia, Canada, the United States, Greece, and Malaysia, gathered in New Delhi on Wednesday to celebrate the 80th birth anniversary of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Sheikh Hasina has remained in exile in New Delhi since August 2024, following her departure from Bangladesh amid a mass uprising.
The commemoration was attended by several dignitaries, including journalists Jayanta Ray Chowdhury and Gautam Lahiri, Dr Md. Sirajul Haque, a solicitor from Australia, Dr Molla Huq, a lecturer at Monash University, Australia, and Montreal-based cinematographer and filmmaker Sahid Rahaman (also spelled Shahid Raheman).
The gathering reflected the diaspora’s continued engagement with Bangladesh’s political and cultural legacy, underscoring their solidarity with Hasina during her exile.
Nabanita Chatterjee and Piyali Halder, along with Arpan Mukherjee on keyboard, mesmerised the audience on the occasion of the eminent leader’s birthday with their recitation and Rabindra Sangeet, respectively. They recited and sang a few patriotic numbers befitting the occasion. Madhumita Sen gave her heartfelt rendition of Rabindranath Tagore’s poem Dussomoye.
On this occasion, Sahid Rahaman spoke at the event about his 50-minute telefilm, Ami Sheikh Mujeeb-er Meye (I Am Sheikh Mujib’s Daughter), which he wrote and directed. The film had its special screening and official premiere on September 26, 2026, at Mahanagar Manch in Salt Lake, Kolkata, to commemorate the occasion of Sheikh Hasina’s 80th birthday.
The telefilm portrays the political journey, life struggles, and the subsequent move to India of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. It also deeply explores her personal reflections on her father, the founding father of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. It was shot entirely in Kolkata over the span of a year, with Indian actors and actresses. He also announced that in December, Joyotu Sheikh Hasina will return to the soil of Bangladesh, to her father’s birthplace, and from there she will start a new struggle.
