Over a month-long turmoil in Bangladesh allegedly led by the students on the issue of reservation in jobs for certain categories reached to an anticlimax when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was made to resign and leave country on a short notice. While television visuals showed large crowds on the roads in Bangladesh capital Dhaka and other places with unruly and angry mobs indulging in arson, loot and violence, the Army and Police took little or no action to control mobs and deteriorating law and order situation. According to reports, the army top brass gave Sheikh Hasina just forty-five minutes to make decision to resign and leave the country. Contrary to the initial reports of the Bangla prime minister going to Finland or United Kingdom, she apparently settled for a safer option and sought permission from the friendly Indian regime, which as it appears was promptly granted by the Government of India. Consequently, the Bangladesh aircraft carrying the ousted prime minister, her entourage and belongings landed at the Hindon Air Base near Delhi, received with dignity and she was promptly shifted to an undisclosed safe-house.
Coup D’etat: Anarchy versus Revolution
Ever since the formation of Bangladesh in 1971, it has a long history of political and socio-religious upheaval loaded with tension, conflicts and violence on account of the rivalry among the political parties as also hardcore Islamist organizations/outfits like the Jamaat-e-Islami. In the current phase, the country has many serial protests against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina led government of the Awami League between 2022 to 2024. In December 2022, protests were made by the Bangladesh opposition parties proclaiming Sheikh Hasina government as an autocratic regime seeking its resignation. However, such protest remained at low scale with some events of vandalism and violence at occasions, particularly in November-December 2023. Recently, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh reinstated the pre-2018 quota system in a verdict which triggered massive protests from students declaring it a quota reform movement in favour of the merit-based selection / appointment.
At occasions, the protests turned to be violent, forcing administration and security establishments to strictly deal with it which allegedly resulted in considerably large number of injuries and deaths leading to further escalation of public anger and protests. As it seems, the protests were initially made by the university students affiliated to certain organizations; however, as it escalated, it was joined by many others including radical Islamists and even anti-social elements as will be evident in the following paragraphs with revelation of more facts. Although anti-government sentiments were on rise followed by protests and, consequent reprisal by the pro-government forces. However, all these developments remained at low key all along June-July 2024 so far as their national and international publicity and attention is concerned. At the same time, as it appears, the protests that were initially aimed at curbing the quota system gradually spread over the entire country creating anarchy with key and dominating role being played by students and other youth in reality or ideologically affiliated with opposition parties like BNP and hardcore Islamic organizations like Bangla Jamaat-e-Islami.
While the nation was passing through this conundrum, according to reports, Sheikh Hasina made a proposal for the peaceful talks with protesters on 3 August indicating that the government was willing to hold negotiations with them to hear their grievances for needful settlement in an amicable manner. However, the leaders and coordinators of the protesters announced that they have no plan to negotiate with the government after enduring hunger strike and torture under the police custody. Apparently, some other leaders too echoed somewhat similar opinion and, reportedly, one leader Asif Mahmud reacted by saying that there was no question of dialogue with bullets and terrorism. Subsequently, thousands of protesters gathered at the national capital Dhaka’s Shahbag intersection arguably in the form of civil disobedience demanding resignation of the government. On the following day, the protesters announced the long march to Dhaka in defiance of curfew to press for the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. In the ensuing violence leading to clashes between the rival groups as also police action several deaths and injuries, including students and many others, were reported.
Reportedly on 5 March, hundreds of thousand people came out on streets and a large crowd of protesters marched towards the capital Dhaka to press for Sheikh Hasina’s resignation. According to Western media sources, as many as about five million people participated in this march towards the national capital. Only they will know how they estimated this magic number as also in such various reports they squarely have blamed Sheikh Hasina government for shutting down educational institutions, and deploying Awami League’s student wings to act against the protesters using force and violent means in suppression of the uprisings. The same Western reports also suggest that the government deployed the police and armed forces to stop protests with a nationwide shoot-at-sight curfew. On the ground, however, what people saw in the neighbouring countries like India that neither the police nor the armed forces out on roads made any attempt to stop or obstruct the people involved in conundrum occurring everywhere on the day.
Day long reports from media suggested that a large crowd of protesters made its way through the national capital Dhaka. The Bangladesh army and police did not take action to stop the protesters storming and taking control of crucial government building including the prime minister’s residence. Apparently, the Bangladesh army personally led by the Chief of Army Staff Waker-Uz-Zaman was in control of the situation. What transpired between the top army brass and Sheikh Hasina closed doors through the conundrum on roads and government installations ultimately led to the resignation of Sheikh Hasina around 3:00 PM and, in return, she was allowed by military a safe passage to quietly leave the country. According to reports, she was keen to address the nation through a brief message which was declined by the army. As against the initial conjectures of the deposed prime minister going to Finland or United Kingdom, as it appears she sought India’s permission which was granted. Bangladesh army only offered a courtesy of their helicopter and a transport aircraft to carry her entourage to the Indian Air Force Hindon Airbase at the outskirts of Delhi.
The Western media reports suggest that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled to India, her government’s biggest ally. In this author’s opinion, a more accurate version would be that she was made to resign and forced to leave country of her choice. Immediately after her exit, the frenzied and violent mobs of protesters started a widespread jubilation and large-scale vandalism and violence in various parts of the country. In most cases, the members of the minority Hindu community were targeted by the violent mobs. Their houses and commercial establishments were looted and put on fire, many men were thrashed and killed, and women victims were raped. Persecution through riot, conversion and mass exodus is usual modus oprandi, long tested and applied by radicals on minority population in the region. Reports and visuals circulating in media suggest that the armed forces did only little or none to stop these excesses by the frenzied protesters. On their part, the military top brass and Bangla President Mohammad Shahabuddin announced the formation of an interim government led by the entrepreneurs, banker, economist, and civil society leader Mohammad Yunus, aged 84 years, who was currently living in the United Kingdom.
The Western media reports suggest that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled to India, her government’s biggest ally. In this author’s opinion, a more accurate version would be that she was made to resign and forced to leave country of her choice. Immediately after her exit, the frenzied and violent mobs of protesters started a widespread jubilation and large-scale vandalism and violence in various parts of the country. In most cases, the members of the minority Hindu community were targeted by the violent mobs. Their houses and commercial establishments were looted and put on fire, many men were thrashed and killed, and women victims were raped. Reports and visuals circulating in media suggest that the armed forces did only little or none to stop these excesses by the frenzied protesters. On their part, the military top brass and Bangla President Mohammad Shahabuddin announced the formation of an interim government led by the entrepreneurs, banker, economist, and civil society leader Mohammad Yunus, aged 84 years, who was then located in the United Kingdom.
Well, some of the Western governments, particularly the US, and their media have touted these developments as a revolution in the Bangladesh to overthrow an autocratic and corrupt regime. Some of the same sources have suggested that the neighbouring Indian media has been engaged in a widespread misinformation campaign aimed at destabilizing Bangladesh, following Sheikh Hasina’s resignation and taking (temporary) shelter in India. The way an unprecedented change in the democratically elected government has taken place in Bangladesh, apparently the aforesaid narrative best suits to the vital interests of some countries of the Western Europe and the US. However, the way a large number of unabated reports of arson, loot, violence and rape against women targeting the minority communities, mainly Hindus, are pouring in from across the Indo-Bangladesh border and a large number of visuals (images and videos), though many unverified, are circulating in the electronic, print and social media, the reports of the Western media itself look like a purported propaganda to suit their political and other strategic interests. The Bangladesh military and police have shown dismal performance and nearly total failure with their inept handling of the so-called revolutionary mobs of students, so much so that the newly chosen Bangla head of the interim government, Mohammad Yunus, had to in person apologize for harm done to the minorities.
Immediately after Sheikh Hasina was made to resign and leave Bangladesh, a large number of protesters stormed the Ganabhaban, the official residence of the Prime Minister. It was a complete free run right under the nose of the Bangladesh army. People, supposedly the mob comprising of the revolutionary students, ransacked the entire Ganabhaban damaging the property, looting the articles and artefacts left behind by the deposed prime minister and made merry-making with sloganeering and eating stuff in the premises for hours. Some of them even took to an ugly and abhorrible act of brandishing with vulgar display of the looted private clothes, like undergarments, of the prime minister who would be of their grandmother’s age. While this brazen display occurred at the prime minister’s residence without any resistance from military men deployed there, the frenzied mobs in Dhaka and other places indulged in targeting the people and properties of the minority, mainly comprising of Hindus. In facts, certain visuals (unverified) taking rounds on the social media even suggest that at least some members of the military in uniform too encouraged or indulged in such crude and abhorrible activities.
The Western countries and media, particularly in the Western Europe and US, often tend to see developments in other countries from the coloured lenses that best suit their vested interests. The Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh has been widely depicted in the Western media as an autocratic, undemocratic, oppressive and violent government, simultaneously failing to manage a prolonged economic downturn, rampant corruption and human rights violations. Paradoxically the very Western organizations have placed Bangladesh much above the more stable India on the overall happiness index, a fast-growing economy with a high per capita and GDP vis-à-vis other South Asian countries. The fact is that during the last fifteen years of the Sheikh Hasina regime, the overall economy of Bangladesh has considerably improved with a rapid progress and high GDP growth, Bangla currency is strengthened and communal tension minimized with relatively less harassment of Hindu and other minorities compared to previous regimes. If the Western countries and media are unable to see these positive indicators, and instead justify the widespread unabated genocidal attacks on Hindus; and vandalism, arson and loot, including vulgar display of personal belongings and undergarments of the deposed prime minister, by the protesters as revolution then it is, of course, a student revolution. As for the worst affected neighbouring country India following such development in Bangladesh, we look at it as an outright anarchy and overthrow of a lawfully elected government.
Bangladesh’s Troubled History since Partition
Bangladesh (post-partition East-Pakistan till 1971) had a troubled history of religion-based discrimination and large-scale disturbances and violence even during the pre-partition British era. The Direct Action Day (16 August 1946) alias Kolkata Killings organized by the All-India Muslim League using violence against non-Muslims (Hindus) to press for a separate homeland for Muslims and the Noakhali Riots (October-November 1946) indulging in massacres, rapes and abductions, combined with looting and arson of Hindu properties are cases in point just a year before the partition of India. The methods adopted by one community during these riots to achieve their objectives were massacre, pogrom, forced conversion, arson, abduction and mass rape leading to the death and injuries of thousands of people besides large-scale displacement of families when village after village was being converted to Islam while the state administration under the Chief Minister of Bengal, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy did not take any effective action against the wrongdoers.
Partition of India in 1947 led to the creation of the Muslims homeland in two parts: 1) The West Pakistan comprising of the states of Punjab (large portion of undivided Punjab), Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Baluchistan; and 2) the East Pakistan, carved out of the major portion of the greater undivided Bengal). Although a new nation was created based on religion but the sharp differences in culture, language and several other socio-economic factors of the two parts could never unite them in true sense. The political control was exercised from the hawks sitting in West Pakistan while the maximum resources of agriculture, trade and industries were based in East Pakistan, rich in natural resources, including minerals, arable land, timber, and so on. The people in East Pakistan were never offered their due recognition in terms of place and value they deserved with a prolonged history of socio-cultural, economic and political exploitation and discrimination by the unstable civil and military leadership based in the West Pakistan for the decades. Then came the Pakistani National Elections of 1970 wherein the Bangladesh Awami League won a landslide victory securing a clear majority in the Majlis-e-Shoora (Pakistan National Assembly) and the constitutional right to form a government under the prime minister-ship of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
However, President General Yahya Khan and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the leader of the second largest Pakistan People’s Party, refused to allow Sheikh Mujib hailing from the East Pakistan to become the Prime Minister of Pakistan. This denial of the transfer of power to the democratically elected party forced the Awami League resorting to the protest and agitation. Consequently, Yahya Khan deployed the Pakistan Army headed by General Tikka Khan to curb and crush the popular uprisings in the East Pakistan with effect from 25 March 1971 under the codename ‘Operation Searchlight’. With a view to take control of all the major cities and eliminate opposition, the Pakistani army indulged in a ruthless and widespread arson, loot, murder and rape (later termed as genocide against the Bengalis) to suppress the uprisings, more particularly against the minority Hindu population. They were actively supported and supplemented by the local razakars (private militia) raised from the communal parties like the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh. Although all Awami League supporters were affected but pre-dominantly Hindu areas and Hindus were targeted during the operation. Their houses were burnt, property looted, men were killed in masses, and women abducted, enslaved and raped. Pakistan’s imams proclaimed the Bengali Hindu women to be “war booty”, and fatwas were issued from West Pakistan legitimizing Bengali Hindu women as spoils of the war. Thousands of women thus targeted either died in Pakistani army and razakar’s captivity after prolonged atrocity and mass exploitation or committed suicide, while many others fled to India.
All this led to approximately 10 million refugees, majority Hindus, fleeing East Pakistan to take shelter in the neighbouring Indian states. The Time magazine had reported in August 1971 that the Hindus accounted for about three-fourths of the refugees and a majority of the dead, had borne the brunt of the Pakistani military hatred. The members of the Pakistani military and supporting Islamist militias from Jamaat-e-Islami and other groups were involved in rape, abduction and keeping women as sex-slaves in Dhaka and other places. Such heinous crimes and atrocities ended only after the fall of Dhaka and surrender of Pakistan Army regulars including some paramilitary and civilians (about 93 thousand) before the joint command of the Indian Army and Bangladesh Mukti Bahini on 16 December 1971 after a thirteen days full-fledged Indo-Pak war. As per various accounts and estimates of the international media and reference books/articles, approximately 35,000 people were killed in Dhaka alone while two to three million were killed all over the East Pakistan in this genocidal war, that especially targeted Hindu women, intelligentsia and students.
Following the liberation of the East Pakistan, it was rechristened as Bangladesh. Sheikh Mujibur Rehman formally assumed power to continue as the president, and then prime minister from January 1972 to 15 August 1975, when he was assassinated in a coup by the army. During this period, he had to strenuously focus and work for the reconstruction of the badly damaged Bangladesh infrastructure and economy by the Pakistani army, and razakars supporting them. According to estimates, besides the aforesaid human casualties and sufferings, nearly sixty lakh houses were destroyed, fourteen lakh farm families rendered without tools and animals, and transportation and communication systems were almost totally disrupted with roads and bridges damaged and inland waterways blocked. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated by renegade army officers along with most of his family members including his wife, brother, three sons, two daughters-in-law, many other relatives, personal staff, police officers, a brigadier general of the Bangladesh Army. The only survivors of the Sheikh family were his two daughters Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana, former’s husband and children who were visiting Europe when the stated coup occurred. Four key confidante and allies of Sheikh were also captured and executed.
This coup was staged by the lower rung military officers apparently linked with Khandakar Mushtaq Ahmed, a minister in Sheikh Mujibur Rehman ministry. Khandaker assumed the presidency of Bangladesh following the assassination of Sheikh, who reportedly praised the assassins as “sons of the sun”. He, however, was himself deposed in yet another coup in less than three months on 3 November 1975 led by Major General Khaled Mosharraf, who declared himself as the Chief of Military Staff of the Bangladesh Army, forcing the then Army chief General Ziaur Rahman to resign and put under the house arrest. Sheikh Mujib’s assassins included some fifteen officers of the rank of colonel and below, who were convicted and punished at various stages. One of the key conspirators Khandaker Abdur Rashid was convicted and sentenced to death in absentia, however, he had already escaped to USA and, according to reports, still lives there. This is yet another face of the US which treats democratically Sheikh Hasina as an autocratic, corrupt and undemocratic leader while it welcomed in US and protected the key conspirator and assassin of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman.
Following the assassination of Sheikh Mujib, the chain of command in the army had already broken. After just a few days, another counter-coup took place organized by pro-Ziaur Rehman officers killing Khaled Mosharraf. The country was already under the Martial law imposed by the Mushtaq government, Ziaur Rehman now became de facto head of the government although for the namesake Justice Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem was made chief martial law administrator with the former, air and naval chiefs as his deputies. On 6 November 1975, Justice Sayem was elevated to the presidency and Ziaur Rehman became the chief martial law administrator. Later, he became the president of Bangladesh on 21 April 1977 and served as such till he was also assassinated by a group of army officers on 30 May 1981. According to reports, Ziaur Rehman had faced as many as twenty-one attempts on his life, including one by the air force, until he was assassinated in a coup. During this period, he had constituted his own political party known as the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in 1978. Rehman was succeeded by Abdus Sattar who was deposed by Hussain Muhammad Ershad, another military head, in a bloodless coup imposing the martial law and suspending the Constitution. He ruled as a military dictator from 1982 to 1983 and then declared himself as the president, raised his own Jatiyo Party, made Islam as the official religion of Bangladesh in 1988, and was toppled in 1990 Mass Uprisings.
Thus, the first two decades after the creation of Bangladesh present only gory events and ignominious history, with continuous events of violence, bloodshed and persecution of minorities, mainly Hindus. By now, three influential political parties viz. the National Awami League, Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jatiyo Party had been formed each with a reasonable electoral base, apart from some extant communal and Islamic parties and organizations like Jamaat-e-Islami. The 1990 uprisings after a long de facto military rule paved the way for a parliamentary democracy allowing a popular general election in 1991. Ever since, the Awami Leage led by Sheikh Hasina (elder daughter of former President Sheikh Mujib) and the BNP under Begum Khaleda Zia (Widow of former President Ziaur Rehman) have ruled Bangladesh for the maximum period with the support of other smaller parties; the now deposed Sheikh Hasina was ruling for the last fifteen years, who won the fourth successive general elections held in January 2024.
Even during the last twenty-five years, security of Hindu minority and political turmoil has remained a constant feature in Bangladesh, particularly during the BNP rule under Begum Khalida Zia with widespread political unrest and terror attacks by Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). There have been unsuccessful attempts by splinter military groups to overthrow civilian governments at occasions and the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami have very often engaged in violent protests to overthrow the Sheikh Hasina government. According to reports, students and other members belonging to the radical Jamaat-e-Islami have played crucial role during the recent turmoil leading to the ouster of Sheikh Hasina government. Although Bangladesh achieved more political stability and economic growth in Bangladesh during the secular Sheikh Hasina regime, the radical Islamist groups have constantly been active with a mission to achieve absolute ethnic cleansing even during her regime too. This can be surmised from a report of the Bangladesh human rights group Ain-o-Salish Kendra which suggests as many as 3,679 attacks on Hindu community between January 2013 to September 2021, including targeted vandalism, arson, violence, and sexual offences against women. Now the whole world will eagerly wait what miracles 84 years old Mohammad Yunus and his chosen team would do to tame radical Islamists, bring political stability with sustained economic growth.
Mohammad Yunus Factor & Foreign Hand: An Analysis
Following the ouster of Sheikh Hasina, the protesters also forced the sitting Supreme Court chief justice, head of the Bangladesh Central Bank, and most other key functionaries of the government/institutions. With the announcement of the formation of an interim government under the octogenarian Mohammad Yunus, the Bangladesh president issued orders for the release of former Prime Minister Begum Khalida Zia, who was undergoing a long prison term. Three days after taking oath as the head of Interim government, Mohammad Yunus was acquitted in the draft case earlier filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission which now made an application in the court withdrawing the case. Earlier, another Dhaka court had acquitted him along with three top officials of Grameen Telecom in a labour law violation case, and six months jail term suspended. As for Begum Zia is concerned, after the end of her government’s term in 2006, scheduled general elections were delayed due to political violence and in-fightings had led to yet another bloodless military takeover. Among several corruption and other charges (total 36), Begum Zia was sentenced and undergoing to a total seventeen years imprisonment prison for the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case and Zia Charitable Trust corruption case in 2018.
Mohammad Yunus, third of nine children of Bengali parents, was born in June 1940 in a family of the Muslims in the Chittagong District of the United India. He established his reputation as a successful Bangladeshi entrepreneur, banker, economist, politician, and civil society leader over a period of time. For his liberal views, he found many admirers in the West, his proximity to the Clinton couple in the US being well known. President Bill Clinton was especially vocal advocating a Nobel Peace Prize for him, which was jointly awarded to him and the Grameen Bank in 2006 for the contribution to economic and social development in giving loan to poor without seeking financial securities. He has received many other awards and honours too, including the prestigious US Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 (the highest US award), the US Congressional Gold Medal in 2010 and Magsaysay award in 1984. However, in his own country, he was fired from the post of the managing director of Grameen Bank in 2011 and a local court upheld his dismissal on the charges of ‘loan sharking’ and mismanagement of microfinance. According to reports, Mohammad Yunus has as many as 174 lawsuits against him, majority of which are civil cases, involving the allegations of the labour law violations, corruption, food adulteration, money laundering, and so on, which according to him and his sympathizers in the West are all politically motivated.
Two crucial takeaways of Sheikh Hasina’s ouster as also serious issues of concern for Bangladesh are 1) the risk of Hindu Genocide with the interim government failing to protect Hindu families and their properties across the country, and 2) suspected hands of the American Deep State in engineering the present regime change with a puppet government owing to the US political and strategic interests in the South Asian region, more specifically for their continued interest about Saint Martin Islands:
Here the author would like to quote a relevant extract of a relatively mild incident from a recent report of the BBC India correspondent, while narrating plight of a terrified Hindu family. After formation of the interim government, the mob of about hundred people, armed with sticks and clubs, stormed the house smashing furniture, TV, bathroom fittings and doors and, before leaving, they took away all the cash and jewelry. However, they did not harm terrified members of the family but shouted at them, “You people are descendants of the Awami League! This country is in a bad shape because of you. You should leave the country.” According to many reports pouring in and videos and images (although mostly unverified) circulating on the electronic and social media, apart from a large-scale arson, loot and violence, several people have been actually killed and women raped. These security concerns of the Hindu population in Bangladesh and its deep impact in the neighhbouring Bharat has been such that Prime Minister Modi had to raise the issue from the historic Red Fort on 15 August 2024 and Foreign Minister Jaishankar had to make a statement in the Parliament. According to the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, since the fall of Sheikh Hasina government, at least 205 known cases of attacks had occurred on minorities, mostly Hindus, their temples and properties as on 12 August 2024.
Persecution of Hindus is not a new phenomenon in Bangladesh, it has a long history instead. They were over 33% at the turn of the 20th century, reduced to about 23% by the time of partition of India in 1947, which had now shrunk to less than 8% as in 2022. Anti-Hindu sentiments are so prominent in this pre-dominantly Islamic country that the only Hindu Supreme Court Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha (January 2015 – November 2017) ever was forced to resign with many unfounded charges of corruption, money laundering and moral turpitude slapped on him. Bangladesh author, Dr Taslima Nasrin wrote about the miserable plight of some Hindu families in her novel ‘Lajja’ and she had to leave her country forever just to stay alive. Hindu intellectuals, teachers and professional are constantly attacked, made to resign and/or threatened to leave the country. Irony is the US and some other Western European countries always pretend to be guardian of the democracy and secularism but, for all practical purposes, they are actually seen aligning with the dictatorial and communal regimes world over. Sheikh Mujibur Rehman’s key conspirator and killer Khandaker Abdur Rashid and others such as proclaimed Indian Sikh terrorist Harpatwant Singh Pannu are welcomed, granted citizenship and full protection in US but democratically elected Sheikh Hasina with a largely secular credentials or secular author Taslima Nasrin have no place in their political or humane consideration.
Those who keep a tab of political and strategic developments in the region made conjectures about the possible involvement of the ISI, US Deep State and/or China in Bangladesh turmoil leading to Sheikh Hasina’s ouster and unsavoury flight to India. Keeping in view the American interest in the Saint Martin Island for a military base in the region, close links of Mohammad Yunus with the US government and private organizations, including former US President(s) and Sheikh Hasina’s direct/indirect reference to US intervention do suggest that the present Bangladesh nemesis may indeed be a result of a complex interplay of domestic politics, personal rivalries and international influence. Some news reports have suggested such a foreign intervention linking the undelivered speech of Sheikh Hasina apparently admitting that she could have stayed in power but for handing over the control of the said island to the US thereby allowing them to have sway over the Bay of Bengal; a narrative that has been denied by her son currently located in UK. However, she indeed appears to have referred to such an insinuation in May 2024 when she claimed that a “white man offered her a hassle-free re-election in the 7 January 2024 elections provided she allowed a foreign country to establish an air base in Bangladesh territory.” This was not for the first time, certain reports speculated about the US interest in the St. Martin Island earlier in 2023 too, something which is formally denied by them but its geostrategic significance for US to counter the growing Chinese influence in the Asia-Pacific, and now also in the Indian Ocean region, is undeniable.
The St. Martin Island is located in the northeastern part of the Bay of Bengal in close proximity just about 9 km of the Teknaf coast in Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh, and only 8 km west of north-western Myanmar. China is constantly engaged in increasing its footholds in the Bay littoral countries, more so through its Belt and Road initiative, and is reported to have assisted building Bangladesh’s first submarine base, namely the BNS Sheikh Hasina, off the coast of Cox’s Bazaar thereby augmenting the future scope of Chinese naval operations in the region. Some political analysts and geo-strategists indeed suspect a close US Deep State connection with the Bangladesh developments. The proximity and links of Mohammad Yunus, Chief Adviser of Interim Government (akin to Prime Minister) with some US leaders and organizations is well known that also includes reported initial funding for his Grameen Bank initiative in Bangladesh by the latter and subsequent contributions of the former to the latter’s causes. Bill Clinton’s advocacy for a Nobel Peace Prize, the prestigious US Presidential Medal of Freedom, the US Congressional Gold Medal, Magsaysay Award, umpteen honorary doctorate degrees from the American universities, etc., provide ample evidence how the US has considered and cultivated Mr. Yunus for a long time. Unrest created in Bangladesh in the name of Students revolution, security forces’ suspect involvement and inaction and said revolutionaries’ outright and vocal demand in favour of Mr. Yunus indeed carries volumes to many for pondering and deriving logical inferences. The US and Russian bitter past and rivalry, and how they keep a tab on each other employing various intelligence sources, do not need more illustrations and a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson had warned as back as on 15 December 2023 that in the even of US dissatisfaction with the results of people’s vote (January 2024 General Elections), attempts at further destabilization of the situation in Bangladesh along the lines of “Arab Spring” are likely.
Actually, internationally acclaimed prizes/awards like Nobel or Magsaysay are not a guarantee for the person’s morality, ethics, integrity, well-intentions, or merit of the recipient. Such awards have so often invited criticism and allegations of being politically motivated, premature, or even guided by lopsided or faulty objective and vision. More particularly, the Nobel Peace Prize has invited several controversies and criticism in the past. For instance, former US President Barack Obama was awarded Nobel Peace in 2009 just after 9 months of his first presidency tenure, widely criticized for premature bestow of this honour, and he ordered bombings in seven countries of Middle East, Africa and South Asia during his tenure. Former US Foreign Secretary Henri Kissinger received this august prize in 1973 justifying his role for the ceasefire in Vietnam; while he was well known for his hate and dubious role against India, the largest democracy in world, who completely ignored mass human rights violation and genocide of Bengalis (mainly Hindus) in supporting military dictatorship in Pakistan in 1971. Credentials of Yasser Arafat need not be reiterated, in whose case even a prominent member of the Nobel Committee had resigned in protest in 1994. In fact, it’s a long list and not merely limited to people mentioned here. On the contrary, MK Gandhi worldwide acclaimed for his non-violence and peace efforts never received a Nobel Peace Prize. Same is the case with above cited Magsaysay award: two such awardees in India itself, one politician now chief minister of a state is currently languishing in jail on serious corruption charges in ill-reputed multi-crore Delhi Liquor Scam and the other a journalist is engaged in doing everything to discredit own nation and embarrass consecutively 3rd time democratically elected Modi government of India.
Although much acknowledged and appreciated in the Western governments and academic circles, Mr. Yunus has an eventful past with Sheikh Hasina and he has been a long-time critic of her government’s programmes and policies. He was removed in his capacity as managing director of the Grameen Bank and slapped with many civil and criminal charges cited earlier during Sheikh Hasina regime. He has also been accused of links with the US Deep State, including Wikileaks cables revelation of Mr. Yunus seeking the then US ambassador’s assistance in influencing the government to amend laws giving him authority over the Grameen Bank. Ironically after taking charge of the interim government, he has publicly appreciated and thanked the protesters (addressing them as revolutionary students), who have been on rampage indulging in vandalism, arson and violence against Hindu community across the country. Only time will tell what Mr. Yunus will do to restore peace, protection and confidence of minorities against the orchestrated attacks by the radicals and Islamists from the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
Epilogue
What really embarrasses and disturbs is unqualified endorsement and appreciation by the new head of the interim government about the anarchy created by the protesters in Bangladesh in the name of popular students’ revolution. Even after almost two weeks of his taking oath, the attacks on Hindu community have not stopped. Thousands of threatened Hindus families eager to cross border to escape persecution are posing a moral pressure, and law and order issues in the bordering Indian states. Release of convicted politicians and professionals earlier jailed after due trials belonging to BNP and other parties also do not augur well, reflecting on a faulty judiciary, law and order situation in the country. Several civil and criminal cases have already been slapped on deposed Prime Minster Sheikh Hasina demanding her deportation from India to Bangladesh for trial. There is no doubt that the new political dispensation in Bangladesh will now be relying more on the political parties like the BNP, and radical Islamic parties/groups like Jamaat-e-Islami for support, who had collaborated with the Pakistan army sponsored genocide in 1071 strongly opposing the independence for Bangladesh. Contrary to the US and their allies West’s strategic opinion, currently Sheikh Hasina led Awami League had been a far better bet to continue secular and democratic policies in the country. After her departure, the fear of radical Islamists taking over to fulfil their long-cherished dream of the sharia-based Islamic order in Bangladesh is looming large. Only time will tell the fate of Bangladesh under the new US-friendly Mohammad Yunus regime.
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