Consider the following statements:
1. 21st February is declared to be the International Mother Language Day by UNICEF.
2. The demand that Bangla has to be one of the national languages was raised in the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
Explanation
Statement 1 is incorrect: 21st February was proclaimed as International Mother Language Day by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in November 1999, not UNICEF. It commemorates the martyrs of the 1952 Bengali Language Movement in Dhaka.
Statement 2 is correct: On 23rd February 1948, during the inaugural session of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan in Karachi, East Bengal lawmaker Dhirendranath Datta formally moved an amendment proposing that Bengali (Bangla) be declared one of the official languages of the Assembly alongside Urdu and English.
Hence, only statement 2 is correct — Option B.