ON 5 August 2024, the longest-serving female head of government, Sheikh Hasina Wazed, who served as the tenth and twelfth Prime Minister of Bangladesh, surrendered to the rising cyclone of political unrest and beat a hasty retreat to India. The daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father and first President of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina served for a combined total of over 20 years. Hailed for the apparent economic progress of Bangladesh, she basked in the glory of accolades showered on her for raising the GDP, launching and completing mega projects, giving asylum to Rohingya Muslims escaping the tyranny of Myanmar’s repressive regime and paying off foreign debt. Sadly, she became oblivious to domestic issues and the pains of her own people.
Apparently, she had learnt no lessons from the assassination of her father and the rest of her family, apart from her sister because the duo was travelling abroad. Sheikh Mujib, who had led his nation to victory against Pakistan with the help of India, was initially revered as the “Bangabandhu” (Friend of Bengal) but soon lost touch with reality when he tried to establish a one-party rule as President and let corruption, and misgovernance prevail. Following the 15 August 1975 coup d’état launched by mid-ranking army officers and a series of military coups, Sheikh Hasina sought asylum in India, building relations with her hosts till her return in 1981 as President of the Bangladesh Awami League, her father’s political party.
After a long political struggle, Sheikh Hasina became the Prime Minister and served from June 1996 to July 2001. Her first tenure was lustreless except for signing the 30-year water-sharing treaty with India and ending the insurgency in Chittagong Hill Tracts through a peace accord. During her first tenure, she faced criticism for alleged corruption and perceived favouritism towards India, which led to her losing the next elections. Reportedly, with surreptitious support of the Indian spy agency RAW, Sheikh Hasina won the 2008 general election with a two-thirds majority, securing 230 out of 299 seats—a result rejected by the opposition as having been gained through massive rigging.
Determined to regain control, according to her critics, Sheikh Hasina sold her soul to Mephistopheles allowing India a free rein in the affairs of Bangladesh, much to the chagrin of patriotic Bangladeshis. Leaning on Indian crutches paid rich dividends to her as she won the next three elections (2014, 2018 and 2024), unopposed as her rivals were pushed against the wall. Her autocratic and ruthless rule commenced by repealing the indemnity act, pardoning her father’s killers, ordering an international hunt to arrest the plotters of Sheikh Mujib’s assassination and hanging twelve of them.
To normalize relations between Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, a tripartite agreement was signed on 10 April 1974, by virtue of which Pakistani PoWs in India were repatriated. Additionally, on 16 May 1973, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman granted general amnesty to collaborators of West Pakistani military personnel. However, flouting her father’s policies, Hasina revitalized the ‘vendetta politics’, implicating leaders of the opposition, specifically Jamaat-e-Islami leaders who had not been identified earlier as ‘collaborators’ in 1971. She demanded the trial of Pakistan Army personnel for alleged war crimes, once again raised the bogey of the genocide of three million Bengalis, an allegation that had been disproved by independent international researchers.
Appallingly, she established a kangaroo court named the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) on 25 March 2010. Its purported objective was to detain, prosecute, and punish persons responsible for committing genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and other transgressions under international law. Despite the global judiciary’s objections, several members of the opposition have been sent to the gallows while thousands remain incarcerated. They were given the dubious title of “Razakar”—a highly offensive term in Bangladesh, referring to the supporters of the Pakistani military’s operation to quell the 1971 Bangladesh liberation movement. This reference became her Waterloo.
Throughout her extended tenure, Hasina’s administration has been characterised by widespread political arrests and severe abuses, such as forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), since Sheikh Hasina’s tenure began in 2009, security forces have been implicated in more than 600 enforced disappearances. Another HRW report reveals that between January 2015 and December 2020, at least 755 people described as “militants” or “terrorists” by security forces were killed in 143 alleged shootouts and gunfights across Bangladesh.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was a protest rally by students who demanded a repeal of an “unfair” quota system in government jobs, which reserved some 30 percent of positions for the descendants of freedom fighters of the 1971 liberation movement. Hasina not only ordered a harsh crackdown on the protesting students with excessive force, during a news conference on July 14, when asked by a reporter about the student protests against job quotas, she responded: “If the grandchildren of freedom fighters don’t receive [quota] benefits, who will? The grandchildren of Razakars?”
This cold-hearted comment incensed the protesting students, who started marching through Dhaka University’s campus, using the pejorative term themselves chanting the slogan: “Who are you? I am Razakar.” Also disconcerted by the government’s extreme corruption, unbridled interference by India, rising cost of living, atrocious divisive policies and vengefulness of Sheikh Hasina, people from all walks of life joined the demonstrations. Unleashing brute force which resulted in the loss of hundreds of lives, only raised the determination of the campaigners who defied curfews and stormed the Prime Minister’s residence, forcing her to resign and flee.
We pray that the people of Bangladesh will opt for a stable government. Hope lies in the Bangladeshi youth, two-third of whom are educated, politically aware, have displayed maturity and have kept the Army at bay, opting for a Nobel-laureate economist to lead the interim government. Contrarily, according to some Bengali analysts, Hasina tarnished the legacy of Bangladesh’s liberation war by distorting its narrative. The shocking images of the demolition of Sheikh Mujib’s giant statue is symbolic of the ignominious rule of Sheikh Hasina, who failed to read the mindset of her own people.
—The writer, Retired Group Captain of PAF, is author of several books on China.
