YoIn August 2024, Bangladesh witnessed one of the crucial vital political upheavals in its current historical past.
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What started as a protest towards a controversial quota system for presidency posts grew right into a nationwide motion that in the end led to the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s longest-serving political chief (1996-2001 and 2009-2024). The irony is that each the federal government and the scholars have been initially united of their need to reform the quota system, and the federal government was set to attraction towards the courtroom order that led to the restoration of the quota system. The inevitable query then is what may have gone so mistaken for the world’s longest-serving head of presidency to be ousted inside per week.
This motion was led primarily by college students who weren’t affiliated with any political social gathering, making it a genuinely natural rebellion. The spark that ignited the protests got here on June 5, when the Supreme Courtroom reinstated an employment quota that reserved 30% of civil service posts for youngsters and grandchildren of freedom fighters from the Bangladesh liberation battle. This rekindled a long-standing debate on the equity of the quota system in public employment.
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At first, the protests have been peaceable, and because the motion gained momentum, on July 7, college students intensified their actions, organizing blockades and demanding the abolition of the charge. On July 10, a pupil blockade severely disrupted Dhaka’s transport system.
Because the motion grew, so did the strain between protesters and the authorities. On July 14, a controversial assertion by Prime Minister Hasina, by which she referred to protesters as “kids of the Razakars” (collaborators of Pakistani forces throughout the 1971 battle), aggravated the state of affairs. Ms. Hasina’s aggressive stance and derogatory remarks exacerbated the state of affairs for the protesters, and the federal government needed to shut down the Web to disrupt communication between protesters.
The ultimate nail within the coffin was the assault on protesters by the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the much-despised pupil wing of the nation’s ruling Awami League, which shortly escalated and galvanised the motion as protests unfold throughout the nation, joined by college students from non-public colleges, faculties and universities. Main highways and railway traces have been blocked, bringing a lot of the nation to a standstill.
The federal government introduced the indefinite closure of all instructional establishments. The state of affairs got here to a head on 18 July, when round 20 college students have been killed in clashes between protesters and police. Negotiations between the federal government and protest leaders subsequently started on 19 July. Nonetheless, these talks have been marred by allegations of presidency coercion and the disappearance of key coordinators.
The start of the tip
On July 21, the Supreme Courtroom diminished the quota share from 30% to 7%. This was seen as a doable breakthrough, but it surely didn’t quell unrest as a result of arrests of the coordinators of the coed protests. The motion continued and protesters resumed large-scale demonstrations on July 29 after the federal government ignored an ultimatum to launch their leaders.
On August 2, the state of affairs escalated with renewed clashes between protesters and police. The motion reached its climax on August 3, when the coed motion introduced its solely key demand: the resignation of Sheikh Hasina. They known as for a non-cooperation motion from August 4, successfully marking the tip of the quota protests and the start of a broader anti-government motion. Violence rocked the nation, with the demise toll rising to just about 100 individuals, the best and deadliest toll for a single-day protest within the nation’s historical past.
Public anger mounted, and on August 5, the “March to Dhaka” introduced lots of of 1000’s of individuals to the streets of Dhaka and different surrounding cities. It was at this level that legislation enforcement realized the state of affairs was uncontrolled and suggested Hasina to step down. She reportedly refused and known as for stronger measures to subdue the gang. In a vital flip of occasions, the navy refused to conform. Confronted with the navy’s refusal and an enormous public rebellion, Hasina finally fled the nation. A student-led revolution succeeded in overthrowing an more and more authoritarian regime that had been in energy for 15 years.
The opposition and India’s place
All through this era, the protests have been characterised by a fancy interaction of various actors. College students fashioned the core of the motion, however with the lack of harmless lives, it more and more grew to become a mass widespread motion joined by dad and mom, lecturers, attorneys, cultural activists, artists, professionals and members of civil society. The worldwide neighborhood additionally took word, with organisations corresponding to UNICEF expressing concern over the deaths of at the least 32 kids throughout the crackdown. The protests highlighted deep-rooted points within the political and social cloth of Bangladesh, together with issues about authoritarianism, lack of participatory democracy, nepotism, corruption and repression of dissent.
Following Ms Hasina’s departure, a wave of pent-up anger erupted towards every little thing to do together with her and the Awami League, together with the desecration of statues and murals of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Sheikh Hasina’s father who led Bangladesh’s liberation battle. Whereas there’s some fact within the Awami League’s declare that the coed motion was exploited by opposition events, led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Occasion (BNP) and the right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami, that doesn’t take away from the truth that anger and discontent had been brewing beneath the floor for a very long time on account of Ms Hasina’s repressive type of governance, by which she suppressed the opposition and presided over three disputed and non-participatory elections in 2014, 2018 and 2024. If the opposition took benefit, hiding behind the cloak of the coed motion, and unleashed unacceptable violence leading to loss and injury of public property and killing of legislation enforcement officers, the Awami League can not shirk duty by permitting a one-point quota reform motion to spiral uncontrolled as a result of sheer conceitedness and high-handedness it displayed from the very starting.
The Indian authorities’s response, articulated by Exterior Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on August 6, was notable for its omission of the human rights violations and killings that had occurred. It appeared to downplay the democratic nature of the motion, as a substitute framing it in a manner that aligned with the Awami League’s narrative of exterior instigation. This strategy has been criticized for failing to acknowledge the real grievances and widespread public discontent that fueled the protests. India’s coverage of turning a blind eye to Ms. Hasina’s train of exhausting energy, usually justified by a number of the commendable financial advances and relative stability achieved throughout her rule, didn’t go down effectively in Bangladesh. Most Bangladeshis view India’s relations as aligned with a selected social gathering and particular person in opposition to the individuals of Bangladesh. This presents a problem to India’s diplomacy and the necessity to have a extra nuanced understanding of Bangladesh’s socio-political panorama.
As former Nationwide Safety Advisor and Overseas Minister of India Shivshankar Menon rightly put it, “In the beginning, it was a individuals’s motion. It was a revolution on the streets, and we must always recognise it as such moderately than on the lookout for international influences or purely political explanations.” Furthermore, the function of a piece of Indian media didn’t fare effectively in Bangladesh, the place exaggerations and typically pretend information, verified by credible sources just like the BBC, in regards to the persecution of Hindu minorities generated anger and resentment in Bangladesh, when insurance policies just like the Citizenship (Modification) Act, 2019 and the persecution of Muslims in India within the final decade are recent of their minds. Whereas there might have been cases of assaults on minorities, what was notable was the open public vigil by college students, activists and even opposition events towards assaults on minorities, notably Hindus, with helplines and cellphone numbers distributed to hunt assist in case such an assault happened. Professor Muhammad Yunus visited the Dhakeshwari Nationwide Temple, exchanged greetings with Hindu neighborhood leaders and guaranteed them of his security.
What’s subsequent?
Because the motion has shifted from protests over quota reform to a broader name for political change, Bangladesh is coming into uncharted territory. Relying on how issues play out within the coming months, when the interim authorities assumes energy, South Asia’s rising star faces one among its largest challenges on the trail to reaching a pluralistic society primarily based on democratic rules, rule of legislation, good governance, inclusive development and human rights. The occasions of 2024 can have far-reaching implications for the nation’s political panorama, governance buildings and social dynamics.
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Given the open enmity Ms Hasina has proven towards the interim authorities chief Prof Yunus, together with the alleged corruption expenses levelled by her authorities towards the Nobel laureate, which he termed politically motivated, the problem for Prof Yunus might be to rise to the event and maintain a free, honest and participatory election in distinction to what the Awami League did for 15 years.
For India, the takeaway is the significance of interacting with the final inhabitants moderately than relying solely on relations with one particular person or one social gathering. Accepting the reality helps in the long term, moderately than remaining in a state of denial or persevering with to justify misperceptions. In any case, Bangladeshis know their nation higher than foreigners, together with their mates and neighbours.
Syed Munir Khasru is president of the Institute for Coverage, Advocacy and Governance, a world suppose tank.
