Why an Unrest Grips Restive Bangladesh
From the western lens, Bangladesh running with a two party system (BNP and Awami League with Jamat as a third player) may appear as a textbook case of functioning democracy. Fair and free election is key, here, but this is not the end. Neither the end of the story nor the ends which this movement aspires to.
In the absence of impartial, independent, credible and capable institutions that can ensure fair elections and accountability of governments, the idea of interim government makes sense. There was a provision for an interim government in Bangladesh during the elections, but it was scrapped by Awami League. Now they have an interim government and this bit is to explain (to myself a non-Bangladeshi) why they were demanding an interim government. A government for the mean times.
This interim government would navigate Bangladesh from the oscillation between elected governments and military rule that has been the fate of many south Asian nations?
The cleaning of the premises after the parliament was dissolved was as much a signal as it was therapeutic.
Younis Mohammad is the most known face and respected person to the outside world and the choice can be seen in this context? As Bangladesh sets itself toward a difficult and arduous path of transformation; it will seek and need international support. So why not begin with a figure who is recognizable and acceptable to contenders and opponents. Domestically he is not a polarizing figure and may help in leveraging expertise and tapping non-partisan experience available within the nation. It is also expected that he would help in restoration of a minimal order. An agreement around and about Mohammad Younis ensures that Bangladesh is not sliding into the long years of General Ershad's rule?
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, her daughter Sheikh Hasina and 20 dead members of Awami league aren’t Hindus, so why this is being seen in India as anti-Hindu is difficult, as well as 'easy' to factor. The move from always visualising Hindu as a majority to defence of minority rights is not seamless. The form and formations of political Islam in south asia-- its history, trajectory and future-- is perhaps a more significant and dominant factor.
To cut a long story short : Sheikh Hasina won an election(third consecutive win) in January and fled the country in August. Before fleeing she resorted to fire power to quell a movement.
It is also not a ‘successful’ anti-quota agitation led by students.
The proposal for a quota for freedom fighters in Bangladesh is old. It has been brought up and taken to the back burner few times before this agitation began in July. Honestly, I do not recall all the details.
The latest round stipulated the quota at 30% first and it was pegged back to 5% by the Supreme court in Bangladesh (with 3% for the families of freedom fighters). Despite the drastic cut in percentage, it was rejected by Students Against Discrimination. Logically the proposal is absurd and behind it lies an ongoing systematic attempt to rig the rules for one party. So that one party monopolizes all the spoils of being in power. This again is not the end of the story. Many Bangladeshi feel that Awami League is biased and corrupt, its rule autocratic and authoritarian.
The quota provision for 'freedom fighters' is illogical, because, if you were born in 1971, you would be 53-year-old today. And, if you participated in the liberation struggle let's say, as early as, when you were 10- to 20-year-old( Khudi Ram Bose was young) you would be today between 63- to 73-year-old. Life expectancy at birth in Bangladesh is 73.84 years in 2024, it was 46.94 years in 1971. What jobs can one want to apply at this age?
How and why attributes of freedom fighters can be hereditary? What disadvantages, barriers or obstacles the descendants of freedom fighters face?
What opportunities, privileges and power a freedom fighter and their descendants may have missed in Bangladesh?
The informal, biased distribution of power and its benefits is being cemented by the proposed quota? Intergenerational justice, I suspect, is just a hint/hinge and acts as a clue to the stakes in the prevalent situation.
As events unfold in Bangladesh, we are reminded how chaos and anarchy that characterizes political violence of 'order' and its disruption thins the fabric of society, and the injustices of past fog the visions of future. The liberation and the 'two' struggles for liberation in Bangladesh has been interwoven for what end?
The liberation struggles and authoritarian regimes are interlocked with violence. They encircle and impose themselves on each other only by and through violence.
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