Why Sheikh Hasina Has Only Herself To Blame For Bangladesh Teetering On The Brink Of Anarchy

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is facing calls to step down from riotous students and many others in the country, has only herself to blame for the acute crisis unfolding in Bangladesh.

According to reports coming out of the country, in spite of the total internet ban and news blackout, over a hundred people, almost all of them young university and college students, have been killed in clashes with police as well as members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the students’ wing of the ruling Awami League.

What Happened In Bangladesh

Students of various universities launched protests against a 5 June High Court order striking down a 2018 government circular abolishing quotas from government jobs. 

Till 2018, 56 per cent of government jobs were reserved, a major chunk (30 per cent) for children and grandchildren of ‘mukti joddhas’ or freedom fighters.

Of the remaining 26 per cent, 10 per cent of government jobs were reserved for candidates from backward districts, 10 per cent for women, 5 per cent for minorities, and 1 per cent for physically challenged. 

It was widely alleged that the quotas were being misused and jobs were being sold to undeserving candidates.

Also, the quota for children and grandchildren of freedom fighters (of the 1971 war that led to liberation from Pakistan and creation of Bangladesh) was seen as favouring those belonging to or supporting the Awami League. 

In a country with acute unemployment, government jobs are highly prized and offer security and social prestige. It is widely felt that quotas stifle merit and are grossly unfair.

After widespread protests by students in 2018, the Awami League government brought out a circular abolishing all quotas. But this move was challenged, and on 5 June this year, the High Court struck down the circular. 

The government, as well as students, filed separate petitions before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, asking for a stay on the High Court order.

The Supreme Court on 10 July refused a stay and posted the matter for hearing on 7 August.

Protests Last Week

University students, fearing that job quotas may be brought back by the government, took to the streets of Dhaka and other major cities of the country.

The protests were peaceful for the first few days, with students blocking major intersections of the capital, the highways, and rail traffic for a few hours every day.

But with protests spreading to all parts of the country, the Chhatra League became active and, from last weekend, started attempting to foil the protests.

Soon, clashes broke out at some university campuses between anti-quota protestors and Chhatra League members.

The clashes triggered more protests, which engulfed even college and high-school campuses. The government just sat and watched the anti-quota protests take over the entire country.

Hasina triggered more outrage on 14 July when she asked if jobs should be reserved for children and grandchildren of ‘razakars’ (traitors who sided with West Pakistan and tried to foil the freedom struggle) instead of the descendants of the mukti joddhas. 

Protestors under the banner of ‘Students Against Discrimination’ interpreted that remark as a slur against them by the Prime Minister. 

“How dare she (Prime Minister Hasina) call us offspring of razakars? We are all patriotic citizens of this country and our grandparents had also contributed to the freedom movement,” Hasnat Abdullah, one of the coordinators of the anti-quota protests, told Swarajya over the phone from Dhaka earlier this week. 

Hasina’s statement led to intensification of the protests from 15 July. Enraged, and probably at the behest of the Awami League leadership, Chhatra League activists started attacking protestors on campuses and the streets, with police either turning a blind eye to or aiding the Chhatra League activists. 

Retaliation And Killings

The situation spiralled out of control, with protestors attacking Chhatra League activists and police, leading to retaliation by the latter. Police and even Chhatra League activists opened fire on protesters at many places, including the streets of Dhaka, killing many students. 

The Awami League government did not try to rein in the police or the Chhatra League activists. It was only on 18 July that Law Minister Anisul Haque announced that the government was willing to talk to the protesters.

Haque said Prime Minister Hasina had asked Education Minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury to initiate a dialogue with the protesting students. 

But it was too little, too late.

The students rejected the offer for talks and said no dialogue will be held with the government that had killed students. They demanded an unqualified apology from the Prime Minister and immediate punishment for Chhatra League activists and police officers. 

The worst violence occurred on 18 July, with government properties, including the office of the state-run Bangladesh Television, torched.

The streets of Dhaka and other cities resembled battle zones, with stones, blackened shells of torched vehicles, empty bullet shells, tear gas canisters and stun grenades, abandoned footwear, pools of blood of dead and injured protesters, and uprooted railings and dividers painting a picture of the mayhem.

According to reports, over a hundred people, almost all of them students, have died so far. The embattled Hasina government has imposed a curfew from the midnight of 19 July and deployed the army to guard vital installations.

But according to latest reports, sporadic violence continued on 20 July in Dhaka and other parts of the country. Unconfirmed reports said that a few more students have died in police firing over the last 24 hours. 

The government has, since 19 July, launched a nationwide crackdown on protests, arresting many of the protesters and taking them away to undisclosed locations. 

But reports coming in from Dhaka despite the information blackout imposed by the government — all TV channels have gone off air, newspapers and news portals have shut down, and the internet is not working — indicate that the government is yet to come to grips with the situation.

Despite deployment of the army and the para-military Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB), violence and protests are continuing.

The helplessness of the Awami League government can be judged from the fact that the website of the Bangladesh Prime Minister’s Office (see this) that was hacked on 18 July by a group calling itself ‘The R3sistanc3’ is yet to be restored.

Even websites of the Bangladesh Bank (the country’s central bank), Bangladesh Police, and other important government establishments that were hacked are yet to be restored.

The hackers, it is learnt, are a Pakistan-based group, acting at the behest of the Pakistan government and establishment, that has strong ties with the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami (Jamaat) and never misses an opportunity to target the Awami League.

Opposition Fishing In Troubled Waters

Sensing an opportunity to embarrass the government, the opposition BNP and its ally, the Islamist Jamaat, started instigating more protests and deployed its activists to indulge in and also provoke arson. 

From 19 July, the anti-quota protests turned into an anti-government agitation, with calls for Hasina’s resignation and even fresh elections under a caretaker government ringing out (a demand voiced by the BNP and other opposition parties before the last parliamentary election).

The backing of the BNP and Jamaat, and also Pakistan as well as covert support from the United States (US), is encouraging protestors, allege Awami League leaders.

The US, which has been critical of the Awami League coming to power for the fourth time in January this year through what it views as “highly flawed” elections, is encouraging protests against the government, alleged Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat.

Arafat spoke to Swarajya over the phone from Dhaka before the nationwide internet shutdown from 18 July evening.

“The USA is encouraging the protests. The BNP and Jamaat are instigating the protests and their activists are taking part in the protests. Pakistan is also involved,” he said.

Blame Rests With Awami League Government

While all that may be true, there is no disputing the fact that the Awami League government, and especially Hasina herself, is to blame for the anti-quota protests spiralling out of control. 

As soon as protests erupted early last week, the government should have called the students in for a dialogue and explained that it had filed a petition before the apex court challenging the High Court order that struck down the 2018 government circular abolishing quotas. 

The government should have assured the protesting students that it supports their demand. It should have requested them to wait for the outcome of the hearing before the Supreme Court on 7 August.

It could have also promised the students that in case the Supreme Court upholds the High Court order, a new law scrapping quotas would be enacted. 

Instead, the government allowed protests to continue and escalate. And when the protests threatened to disrupt normal life and movement, the Awami League deployed its students’ wing (the Chhatra League) to snuff out the protests. 

The move backfired, with clashes between protestors and Chhatra League activists being reported from Dhaka and some other cities on 15 July.

The Awami League leadership should have realised the danger of provoking the protesters and rather asked the Chhatra League to back off. It did nothing and may even have encouraged the Chhatra League to intensify attacks on protesters.

Mid-week saw pitched battles between the protesters and Chhatra League activists as well as the police. Police and Chhatra League activists started firing on and killing protestors. Once blood started spilling and bodies of protesters started piling up, the rubicon was crossed and all chances of a reconciliation and end to protests vanished.

It is now futile for the Awami League leadership to blame the BNP and Jamaat, or Pakistan and the US. The leadership, with its ham-handed approach and mishandling of the situation, gave an opportunity to the opposition parties and other forces to take advantage of the situation. 

Hasina may well survive, but the aftershocks of the protests and violence will continue to wrack the country for a long time to come. 

This week’s violence has also dealt a blow to the country’s struggling economy and is sure to hit exports, thereby triggering a financial crisis that will take a while to overcome.

The deaths of students this week will go down as a dark chapter in Bangladesh’s history.