“Order Reigns in Dhaka"

What started as an innocuous student protest at Universities against exclusionary quotas for coveted civil service jobs in the government finally became a popular uprising against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her 15 years of authoritarian rule. Her initial reaction was boot-heel violence through the Rabid Action Battalion, an elite unit of Bangladesh’s police forces. That resulted in the killing of more than 300, injuring of thousands and then jailing of more than 10,000. And just within 20 days, the scenario changed dramatically forcing Hasina to resign and flee the country at the advice of the army.

Not only had the quota system been manipulated against students, but young people as a whole have been facing harsh conditions of life. Some 41 percent of youth are classified as “inactive”, meaning they are not in schools, working, or in job training. Some 60 percent of University graduates are unemployed. The quota system makes finding jobs more difficult for most since it reserves 30 percent of civil service jobs for documented descendants of freedom fighters in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

Hasina’s brutal response to the protest transformed a movement focused on quota reform into an expression of profound discontent about the common man’s life in Bangladesh. The Student Alliance of Bangladesh–representing Bangladeshi students–drew solidarity support from across the world. But an ‘insurrection’ or mass upheaval without proper political leadership and organisational preparations might ultimately prove to be an act of desperate folly. And the rightists and religious fundamentalists lost no time to siege the opportunity and hijack the movement to their advantage.

While people in Bangladesh are rejoicing in the downfall of an autocrat, there is a stunning silence among its neighbours. India’s silence is not surprising as it has been the principal backer of the Hasina government for the past 14 years and practically contributed to the erosion of democracy in Bangladesh. No doubt the abrupt departure of Hasina has been a cause of relief and celebration among the millions of protesters who helped bring about an end to her misrule. But this is not a time to celebrate, as in India earlier. So in Bangladesh now. Rabidly communal and reactionary forces, maybe more manageable for transnational capital, are regrouping themselves under the banner of ‘democracy’.

The days 4-5 August, 2024 will be remembered a long time not in Bangladesh but elsewhere across the world as to witness how autocrats are ‘paper tigers’ before the will of the people. They always fear people. They all look for ORDER–the capitalist ORDER–scripted by the global leaders of capital. They are talking eloquently about the ORDER in Bangladesh.

It is this return of “ORDER” in Berlin Rosa Luxemburg condemned in her last writing in the night of 14 January 1919. And she and Karl Liebknecht were picked up and assassinated on 15 January 1919.

The people of Bangladesh clearly stood up against the ‘ORDER” of the autocrat, tragically only to be led by the rightist of the worst kind in the end as it happened earlier in Afghanistan, Iran, Eritrea, Burma, Pakistan–numerous such turns of events when the fall of one autocrat, rather elected autocrat, makes more stringent grip of another autocrat in the garb of change.

For one thing, some of the anti-India sentiment in Bangladesh stems from India’s unqualified support for Hasina’s government which many see as interference in domestic affairs. Historical grievances and accusations of overreach also contribute to some of the negative perception. For the moment India doesn’t have too many options other than tightening the control on its border. And they have already done it by constituting a five-member committee to monitor the current situation along the Indo-Bangladesh border. A peaceful, stable and prosperous Bangladesh is in India’s interests.

11-08-2024
[Contributed]