Our neighbouring state of Bangladesh is passing through a historic juncture. The whole of Bangladesh witnessed a vigorous student movement during June-July demanding reform of the quota system in government jobs. The Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government has bloodied its hands killing nearly 1,000 students martyred within a month, in order to suppress this movement. However, the anti-quota student movement turned into a fierce mass uprising against the regime that washed away PM Sheikh Hasina and her cabinet. She was forced to flee and take refuge in India, after resigning from her post. After the fall of the Hasina government, followed by days of military rule and administrative vacuum, the interim government of Bangladesh was formed on August 8.
The demand for this quota reform in Bangladesh is long-standing. In 2013 and 2018 too there was a student movement on this issue. The quota system in government jobs was introduced in 1972, after Bangladesh became independent. In this system, apart from a small reservation for women, minorities, disabled etc., a large part (30%) was the freedom fighter quota, i.e., those seats were reserved for the families of those who gave their lives in the liberation war of Bangladesh to get rid of the dictatorial rule of East Pakistan. Since then, Bangladesh witnessed several generations, several governments; only the quota system remained intact, in spite of its limitations. Moreover, for the past five decades, the ruling class of Bangladesh, regardless of party affiliation, has gifted the people with extreme corruption, foreign debt burden, and rampant unemployment. The dictatorial rule of Sheikh Hasina used this quota system to indulge nepotism and create a party system with sycophants. The demand for the reform of this quota system was legitimately raised from the student community suffering from unemployment, because according to the constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, all citizens have equal opportunities in employment. Against this backdrop, protests started in 2018 with the main demand of reducing the quota system in government jobs from 56% to 10%. Under pressure, the Hasina government finally announced the abolition of the quota system. However, this year, i.e. on June 5, the Bangladesh High Court reinstated the quota system, resulting in country-wide protests.
The Awami League government led by Sheikh Hasina has been in power since 2009. This government has indulged in rampant corruption, both financial and electoral, by entrusting the people with the lollipop of development that protects the interests of the capitalists. The Awami League had established an autocratic rule by suppressing all opposition voices through killings and disappearances for the last one and a half decades. In 2018, during the movement demanding safe roads, there was a joint crackdown on students and journalists by the police and Chhatra League.
This year too, when the student protests began after the announcement of the reinstatement of the quota, instead of discussing, the government responded with the familiar brutal crackdown. While rejecting the demand to abolish the freedom fighter quota, Sheikh Hasina arrogantly called the agitators as “grandsons of the razakars”, which added fuel to the fire. When the agitating students took to the streets with slogans like ‘Asked for my rights, and became razakars’, they were attacked by both the police and the Chhatra League. On July 16, a student named Abu Sayeed was killed in police firing after being shot in the chest, and the spark of this incident spread like a wildfire throughout the country. The Hasina government tried to control the movement by shutting down the internet, imposing curfews, bringing down the army and carrying out a final crackdown. In this situation, on July 21, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh changed the order to 93% appointments on the basis of merit. To disrupt the student movement, the women quota was removed on one hand, while the 5% freedom fighter quota was maintained on the other. But already the students of different institutions came together and formed a banner named ‘Anti-Discrimination Student Movement’ with coordinators from different organizations. They called for a countrywide protest march on August 3 and an indefinite non-cooperation movement from August 4, demanding public apology from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to the nation for the gruesome massacre. On 3 August, beside the students, many ordinary citizens gathered at the Shaheed Minar; teachers and lawyers played an important role in supporting the students. At the end of the day, a single-point demand was announced – the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the dissolution of her cabinet. On August 5, Sheikh Hasina was forced to resign and then left Bangladesh in a military helicopter to take refuge in India.
This uprising against the autocratic rule of Hasina is a significant event. Even the statue of the ‘Father of the Nation’ Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was reduced to dust by the people during this mass uprising. This shows that the people of Bangladesh, especially the political opponents, have not forgotten the thousands of murders of political opponents by the hand of Mujib, since the formation of the National Defence Force in 1972 until his death. However, even so, it is not reasonable to consider this movement as a revolutionary movement at this stage; because Muhammad Yunus, who has been nominated as the chief adviser of the interim government after the coup, is known to be very close with US imperialism. If the responsibility of governing the country is given to a person who champions neoliberalism, then the future of the country will definitely be questioned! Especially, when it was seen that the left-wing forces of the country were not even asked for their suggestions in the formation of the interim government, despite their active presence in the mass uprising with whatever little power they have there. On the contrary, many prominent people who were not at all involved in the uprising, have found their place in the interim government. There was no mass participation of workers in the movement. Rather, it has been seen that various fundamentalist forces have taken advantage of the administrative vacuum in the last few days and carried out gruesome atrocities on the minority people in every nook and corner of the country. As a result, naturally, the movement has been tarnished to a great extent, and the Hindutva government of our country is taking advantage of it. In any country, religious and ethnic minorities are always the soft targets of the ruling class. India and Bangladesh are not different in this respect. However, in some cases, it has been observed that the common citizens, students of Bangladesh, were protecting the minorities, guarding temples by forming voluntary groups, and also trying to recover other losses incurred during the mass uprising. Needless to say, these images were not picked up by the mainstream media in India, because they do not fit the political narrative that the ruling party of India wants to propagate In short, the student movement against the totalitarian regime, with its promise to create a new liberal democratic republic through mass uprisings, was never a revolutionary movement to build a new egalitarian society under the leadership of the working masses. We hope that the new government will not suppress the opposition, as it has done in the past under the mask of democracy, during the tenure of Mujib-Khaleda-
Hasina. Only time can tell whether our hopes will be fulfilled or not. A good sign is that the civil society of Bangladesh is well-aware of the fact that fascism resurfaced after every mass-uprising. Thus, they have formed a collective forum, which is aimed to ensure all sorts of democratic rights such as protecting freedom of expression for all citizens, from plainlands to hills, demanding repeal of repressive and anti-people laws, as well as an impartial judicial system, protecting the rights of workers and peasants, reinstating democracy in educational institutes curbing autocratic influence of ruling classes. Despite various limitations, we need to give this uprising due importance. We have seen at various times in our country how the state has suppressed the voice of the democratic movements with all its teeth. At present, workers, farmers, students, intellectuals, journalists, writers, human rights activists and ordinary citizens of India from all walks of life are facing the wrath of the fascist rule of the BJP-RSS. Unfortunately, a large section of the country’s civil society is still dreaming of defeating fascism through elections. The neighbouring country of Bangladesh is a burning example in recent times that an authoritarian regime cannot be defeated only through elections; a mass uprising is essential. Again, from the example of Bangladesh, it is also clear that if the revolutionary forces fail to lead that uprising, then it is bound to fail in the task of bringing revolutionary changes in society. We need to keep an eye on the direction in which Bangladesh moves, what kind of changes happen in coming days, and what effect it has on the politics of the Indian subcontinent. It is necessary for the revolutionary forces to be prepared in advance so that in the coming days, if such a situation arises in our country, it will not be usurped, rather will be carried out in a revolutionary direction.
