Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Aug 10, 2024

The past week saw a dramatic collapse of the authoritarian Awami League Government led by Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh. A sudden unexpected end came with Sheikh Hasina fleeing to India and within hours her home was invaded and looted by demonstrators (a bit of a replay of what happened not long ago in Sri Lanka). For weeks thousands of students led a protest movement against job quotas (for Bangladeshi freedom fighters), but this movement was soon joined by a deluge of people when the brutal police repression began killing hundreds of students. Stupefied at the extreme violence of the security forces people from all walks joined turning this into a mass movement, people stood unfettered and defied curfew; Parts of the movement turned violent burning down police stations and properties associated with the ruling party the Awami League and also attacking statues of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman and places of worship of the minorities. It is very creditable of the student movement which has called for a secular defence of all minority institutions. Days after the collapse of the Awami League government, violence and chaotic conditions have continued despite the Army stepping in. An interim caretaker government led by the highly respected Dr Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh’s only Nobel laureate, and a man in the bad books of Hasina, was sworn in on August 8. The new Government has a very tough job, most of all to ensure a return to normalcy; it won’t be easy to deliver on all the demands of the student-led movement. Reforming the police, the bureaucracy, the judiciary, the election commission and the military top brass will take time. India had much goodwill in Bangladesh since it intervened militarily in 1971 against Pakistani military repression and accepted millions of refugees who fled Bangladesh. It had as a result very good relations with Awami League the party of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman the founder of Bangladesh. These relations had continued to be good since Hasina-led Awami league was in power for the last 15 years. But with the Sheikh Hasina regime turning extremely authoritarian the people came to resent to its good relations with India as tacit support for Hasina’s policies. Difficult it would be for the apparatchiks from India, but they must offer wholehearted support to the newly formed interim government in Bangladesh and show understanding for students’ demands for justice & accountability. The rightwing government of Mr Modi calling for the protection of minorities in Bangladesh is fine, but it must realise that its inaction to ensure the protection of minorities within India has created a very damaging image of a new India in its neighbourhood.

August 10, 2024 —HK