What has happened in Bangladesh is an Islamic takeover of the country.
The unruly scenes witnessed in Dhaka after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India will be viewed with shame by the people of Bangladesh for years to come. Stripping the Prime Minister’s residence of its belongings, stealing the furniture, clothes and anything they could lay their grubby hands on, the protesters posed with the undergarments of their Prime Minister, considering that to be a trophy worth having. Never has humanity sunk so low. One shudders to think what this murderous mob would have done to the 76-year-old lady had she not escaped in time.
And on the streets, another horror played out. Fanatical Muslim mobs targeted the minority Hindu community, killing, raping and vandalising their homes and desecrating their places of worship. Such scenes had not played out even when the Bengali population of then East Pakistan suffered genocide at the hands of the brutal Pakistani military regime. As of the morning of 9 August, the police are absent from their posts, the army refuses to act, and the field lies open to the murderous Muslim thugs who choose the easiest victims for their barbaric onslaughts—the minority Hindu community. The mobs also razed the statue of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the architect of the freedom movement of Bangladesh and their first Prime Minister. This act of vandalism was symbolic. It disrespects the sacrifices made by millions of ordinary citizens of Bangladesh. It dishonours the millions killed, and the millions of women raped during Pakistan’s infamous Operation Searchlight launched in March 1971. A Bangladeshi colleague, who had fought the War of Liberation with the Indian Army, told me with great pain in his voice that the India-Bangladesh friendship, forged with the blood of the people of both countries who fought for the freedom of Bangladesh, has been murdered by these acts of villainy and its ashes now lie scattered in the soiled land of their country. What has happened in Bangladesh is an Islamic takeover of the country. In an interview with a news channel, Sajib Wazed, advisor and son to former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, when asked about his mother, said: “Yes, I have spoken to her; she is in good spirits, but she is very, very disheartened with the people of Bangladesh. After all she has done, after all the development, Bangladesh will now become Pakistan.”
Was this destined to happen?
Even before the parliamentary elections of 7 January 2024, moves to implement a regime change in Bangladesh were afoot. In September 2023, the US State Department imposed visa restrictions primarily on Bangladesh’s ruling party officials and law-enforcement officers for allegedly “undermining the democratic election process.” Almost on cue, the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami took to the streets and started a reprehensible saga of protests.
The US also supported Muhammad Yunus, who had been convicted of defrauding the people through his Grameen Bank. A Nobel Prize winner, Yunus had been awarded the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010.
What the regime-change planners failed to understand was that in the 15 years in which Sheikh Hasina had been at the helm of affairs, the per capita income of Bangladesh had increased a whopping 3.7 times—from US$687 to US$2528, which was why she was swept back to power in 2024. However, the regime change operatives did not respect the people’s mandate. For their geo-political interests, they were prepared to destroy democracy in Bangladesh and install, in its place, a fundamentalist Islamist regime. The Biden administration’s apparent support for the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its ally, the Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI), a radical Muslim outfit, was, as stated by one political observer, similar to the US backing of coup supporters in Ukraine during the Maidan Protests in 2014.
In June 2024, it was the students’ turn to enter the fray. The cause célèbre was the issue of reservations in government jobs. The movement, which started on 6 June 2024, received little attention from the world media. It was soon to engulf the country and lead to a change in regime. Was this orchestrated, or was it a genuine student movement? Time will tell.
What was strange about the protests was that both the government and the protestors were initially on the same page. The Sheikh Hasina government abolished the quota for government jobs in 2018. It was reimposed by a court order on 1 July 2024. On 21 July, the Supreme Court scaled back the High Court’s order to 5% for the wards of freedom fighters and another 2% for other categories. But the damage had been done, and violence engulfed the streets.
Why the issue took such a violent turn baffles the imagination. There were possibly powers behind the students who did not want the movement to fizzle out, and they succeeded. After the Supreme Court order, the agitating students suspended their protest, but certain additional demands came up, and the movement got a fresh lease of life, eventually leading to the resignation of an elected Prime Minister. What remains unanswered is: when the government and the protestors were on the same page, what was the rationale for the protests? It points to external instigation and internal abetment.
With the protestors nearing the gates of the Prime Minister’s residence, Sheikh Hasina was forced to flee to India on 5 August. An interim government under the charge of Muhammad Yunus was sworn in on 8 August, and a semblance of order now stands restored. When asked about the violence inflicted on the minority Hindu community in the wake of the ouster of Sheikh Hasina, Yunus refused to take responsibility for the violence unleashed on the hapless minority population. Discounting the violence, he referred to the events as celebrations, much akin to Bangladesh’s Liberation Day. Even after all the mayhem, he did not have one word of solace for the weakest of his fellow citizens.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Mr Yunus on assuming charge. His message also conveyed India’s concerns for the safety and protection of Hindus and all other minority communities. This was a subtle message, telling the new dispensation to get its act in order. Bangladesh will return to normal sooner rather than later, but the India-Bangladesh relationship will take longer to heal. For the immediate future, India will have to address three concerns. One is the safety and security of Bangladesh’s minorities. While the incumbent government will deal with this matter, New Delhi must use all its political and diplomatic skills to maintain pressure on Dhaka on this account. Two, there is now a likelihood of a large number of refugees trying to sneak into India, and many of these are likely to be hostile actors. India must keep vigil on its border with Bangladesh and ensure its sanctity. Third is the likelihood of terrorism once again raising its ugly head in India’s Northeast, this time supported by Bangladesh. Pakistan will lose no time fishing in troubled waters and will probably be in touch with the JEI. New Delhi would have to send a strong message to Dhaka that such an act would cross India’s red lines and invite consequences.For now, fresh elections are unlikely to be held in Bangladesh. There is an interim government in place, but no constitutional provision exists for such a government.
Statements emanating from the student body that led the protests suggest that they are not looking for elections any time soon and wish to postpone the same for at least three to six years. That does not bode well for democracy in Bangladesh. On the other hand, Sheikh Hasina’s son, Sajib Wazed, has said that his party is ready to take part in the elections and that his mother will return to fight them. He said he would join politics if his party wanted him and do whatever it took to save his party. That is all for the good, but only if elections occur soon. That would be the true test of democracy.
The author is Director, India Foundation.