India wary as Bangladesh prepares to form a new government

Alameen Templeton

The Bangladesh military says it will form a new government after Dhaka’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, fled the country Monday as month-long protests over job reservations culminated in bloody massacres on Sunday that claimed 100 lives.

It took the protest death toll to over 300 and broke the back of Hasina’s government.

Neighbouring India is watching developments warily on the other side of the border after agreeing to host Hasina.

Since early July, Hasina and her party, the Awami League, had tried to suppress the nationwide protests against job quotas for veterans of Bangladesh’s liberation war from Pakistan in the Seventies. The quotas were introduced by her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the “founding father” of Bangladesh, and Hasina seemed determined to defend them with the full force of the law.

Ironically, it seems it was her response to the jobs crisis, rather than the crisis itself, that led to her undoing.

Hasina called on the police to crack down harshly on the protests, resulting in escalating, tit-for-tat confrontations and a mounting death toll, with Sunday’s 100 deaths proving a tipping point that ended her administration and precipitated her humiliating flight to neighbouring India.

About 18 million young people in Bangladesh are out of work and the quota scheme has deeply frustrated graduates.

A July 21 court ruling slashing the quotas from 30% of government jobs to just 5% should have been enough to quieten the Bangladeshi street, but by then the police-protester violence had taken on a life of its own.

Now, Bangladesh’s army chief and president are working to install an interim government to calm the protesters and that has New Delhi worried as it includes elements sympathetic to rival Pakistan.

NewArab reports President Mohammed Shahabuddin has announced an interim government will be formed soon after dissolving parliament.

He has ordered the release of former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, Hasina’s arch-rival, who was a key opposition leader jailed for 17 years in 2018 over corruption charges she claimed were politically motivated .

Shahabuddin’s press team Monday said a meeting let by the President “decided unanimously to free Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia immediately”.

The meeting had the backing of the military. Al Jazeera reports Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman, along with the head of the navy and air force, and top leaders of several opposition parties, including Khaleda Zia’s BNP and the occasionally banned Jamaat-e-Islami party, attended the president’s meeting.

It seems no members of Hasian’s Awami League were present.

Economic pressures remain a major concern. The World Bank said late Monday it was assessing the impact of events in Bangladesh on its loan program after Hasina’s flight.

Meanwhile, India’s West Bengal police urged people to avoid sharing provocative videos amid the crisis in Bangladesh. Its Governor CV Ananda Bose assured New Delhi the Bangladesh-West Bengal borders were secure and effective measures were being taken to stop an unauthorized refugee influx into India.

Hasina arrived in India on Monday evening and immediately held discussions with India’s national security advisor Ajit Doval at the Hindon Air Base in Ghaziabad about her future plans.

Her US-based son and former Chief Advisor Sajeed Wajed Joy told New Delhi TV Hasina did not want to leave, but did so on her family’s insistence. “I spoke to her this morning. The situation in Bangladesh, as you can see, is anarchy. She is in good spirits but she is very disappointed. It’s very disheartening for her because it was her dream to turn Bangladesh into a developed country and she worked so hard for it over the last 15 years, keeping it safe from militants and as well as from terrorism and in spite of all of that this vocal minority, the opposition, the militants have now seized power,” he said.

NDTV reports fears that the “militants” are now in power has New Delhi worried as Hasina’s government had developed a hard line against dissidents seeking rapprochement with Pakistan.

Hasina’s humiliating flight came less than seven months after she celebrated a fourth straight term in power – and fifth overall – by sweeping national elections in January.

The 76-year-old was flown in a military helicopter with her sister to refuge in India. Sources say she is expected to leave for London later where she may seek political asylum.

Her last 15 years in power were marked by arrests of opposition leaders, crackdowns on free speech and suppression of dissent

“We hope that there will be elections in Bangladesh but at this time with our party leaders being targeted I don’t see how free and fair elections would be possible. In a way, it is no longer the family’s responsibility. We have shown what we can do. We have shown How much we can develop Bangladesh and if the people of Bangladesh aren’t willing to stand up and they are willing to let this violent minority seize power then people get the leadership they deserve,” her son, Sajeed, said.