Under Sheikh Hasina’s leadership, Bangladesh transformed from a struggling nation into a new ‘Asian Tiger’. The electricity grids reached far-flung areas; Sheikh Hasina built infrastructure previously unseen in Bangladesh. In 2020 Bangladesh’s ranking on the Global Youth Development Index was 126 of 181 countries, in the middle among Bharat’s rank 122 and Myanmar 130. Yet compliance with labour rights, accessibility to health insurance, minimum wage rate, unemployment benefits were few of the areas where Sheikh Hasina’s government was limping along.
During her tenure, Bangladesh emerged as the second largest readymade garment (RMG) exporter in the world. The RMG sector alone contributes a whopping 85% of its export revenue. Heavy reliance on garment industry, ignoring the potential of other competitive merchandise, absence of diversification weakened the import-export dynamics of Bangladesh and made the country vulnerable to external pressure. The imposition of excessive trade and exchange controls also reduced capital flow, dropped forex reserves and hampered its manufacturing growth. Declined GDP, rising trade deficits and unemployment rate brought “the miracle development” under scrutiny.
With 80% of its key exports directed only towards Western markets, Bangladesh’s vulnerability to external pressures becomes very much evident. For instance, the World Bank declined the Padma bridge loan to Sheikh Hasina on the pretext of corruption that later judicially proved to be non-existent! In response to the western political bullying, Sheikh Hasina completed the project with internal finance. By the end of 2021 the United States banned Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion, a premier counterterrorism force, unilaterally!
The strained relations with the West made Sheikh Hasina’s government attract Russia for the imports of food grains and arms. Russia also financed Bangladesh’s 1st nuclear power plant. Bypassing US sanctions on Russia, Hasina’s government agreed to repay Russia in Yuan. In Nov 2023, Russian warships entered Bangladesh’s Chittagong port for joint exercises. Sheikh Hasina’s efforts to strengthen defence trade with China and Russia alarmed the West, The Great-Power Competition in Bay of Bengal and Sheikh Hasina’s refusal to sign a Military Information Agreement with the US reportedly irked Washington.
With the heavy media criticism, restrictive policies and pressure tactics US had pushed itself backward in its competition with China and Russia for influencing Hasina-led Bangladesh!
Hasina’s government faced various massive protests throughout her tenure. The June 2024 episode came as a final nail in the coffin for Hasina’s Awami League government. The student protest was infiltrated by radical Islamists and other anti-government elements. Sheikh Hasina’s supporters were murdered, and her government was overthrown for “the democratic future” of Bangladesh!?
Sheikh Hasina’s 15 years long governance had failed to protect minority interests. She could only prevent extremists from making things worse. In this muslim majority land, Hindu population decreased since 1952 from 22% to 7.95% in 2022; the other minorities in Bangladesh share the same fate. The Awami League that once dropped the word ‘Muslim’ from its name to form a ‘secular’ Bangladesh could not counter anti-secular elements as it imposed threat to their political power and survival.
It is not just the radicals or anti- government elements that caused the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League. Nepotism and corruption are equally to blame. Sheikh Hasina’s 8 family members were entrusted with key responsibilities in Bangladesh’s government regardless of their qualification. Four of them who were elected MPs had amassed a huge wealth. Her son, ICT adviser to the Bangladesh government, was accused of corruption too. Sheikh Hasina’s peon who was nicknamed “Pani Jahangir” as he used to carry drinking water for her, pocketed a fortune worth Tk400 crore! The complete control over national apparatus invariably breeds autocracy, discounts the leader’s integrity and then the stench of corruption grows stronger.
On 5th Aug 2024 Protesters set fire to ‘Bangabandhu Memorial Museum’. Father of the Nation ‘Bangabandhu’ Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family members were assassinated in this same house, on 15th August 1975. The place that witnessed the new dawn of Independent democratic Bangladesh was looted by own countrymen. Bangabandhu gave their land a secular Bengali identity. Within 50 years, his dream of independent secular Bangladesh was reduced to ashes. The bullet trounced the ballot, once again! The literary legacy of the Bengal Renaissance could not shape the country’s future the way it did in the past. The idea of nationalism, rights and social justice could not flourish in Bangabandhu’s land.
With freedom comes responsibility. To retain sovereignty, we must have wisdom, power and a strong sense of emotion that led us towards independence! For the reinforcement of democracy, trust and cooperation are essential. For the positive secularism, the country needs a common legal framework to ensure a conducive socio-political environment!
The writer is a foreign affairs expert. Views personal.
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