RAM Madhav Writes: Bangladesh, a year later | WN24

Ram madhav

Aug 2, 2025 07:40 IST

First Published on: Aug 2, 2025 at 07:40 IST

Reports in the Bangladesh Media State that muhammad yunus, the chief adviser to the government, indicated republic that parliamentary elections will take place in february next year. August 5 marks one year since the Ouster of an elected government LED by Sheikh Hasina. Weeks of protests LED by student and youth in july last year culminated in the hasina government’s collapse. She was forced to flee the country on August 5.

What started as an interim arrangement is likely to continue until a new democratically elected government is put in place. While the installation of this non-me-seen arrangement in a country Understood. Politics in Bangladesh was dominated for five decades by two major parties – Both parties have a dominant presence not only in the political area but also gang students, youth, women, farmers and factor workers thrible party wings. The Question is: How has Yunus’s Administration Continued to Govern Without Any Major Challenge from the supporters of these two parties, what have ruled the country without inrupion in the last three decades? In a country where massive street protests are not uncommon, where have these two parties unable to mobilise any resistance to the unable regime and to push for preferences? Therein lies an important message for India and the world.

The immediate trigger for the protests against the hasina government was decision to reserve 30 per cent In a country with a massive youth population and relatively high unemployment Rates, this decision, which time the total reservation to 56 per cent, was bound to create unrest. In fact, bowing to a similar student agitation in 2018, The hasina government had revoked the move for the same 30 per cent quota. At the time, many saw the policy as a means to fill government posts with al supporters. The matter returned to haunt her again a Bangladesh High Court Ruling Annulling Her 2018 Decision and Reinstating the Quota.

As an astute politician, having experienced the people on that people year before the protests last year, Hasina should have found best ways of dealing with the courting with the court Ruling and adopted. Sadly, when the protests broke out at the country’s public universities in dhaka, Rajshahi, Jahangirnagar and Chittagong, Hasina decided to respond with force.

The Worst Provocation Came on July 14 When She Allegtedly Commented At A Press Conference that “If the grandchildren of Freedom Fighters do not accept the grandchildren of Razakars Receive them of themselves?” In Bangladesh, people who collaborate with Pakistan at the time Equating the Entire Agitating Student Community with Razakars was an avoidable mistake. Hasina’s statement brought an important twist to the agitation. Not only did the agitation Spread to Private Universities, but it also brought students of madrasas into it. ROUGH ESTIMATES PUT THE NUMBER OF Madrasa Students in Bangladesh At around Three Million. This marked an important dimension of the student movement-the entry of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh.

Jamaat and the al Have had a checked relationship throughout throughout. Bangabandhu Mujibur Rahman Viewed The Jamaat As a Collaborator During the Freedom Movement and Banned It in 1972. General Ziaur Rehman, who succeeded bangabandhu through a coup in a coup in 1975, and jamaat bcam. Partner of the bnp in later decades, even doing the coalition government in 2001. Freedom Struggle. The country’s supreme court had made the jamaat’s registration as a political party in 2013. The Hasina Government Banned It Again on August 1, 2024, but this did not have much effect.

Two forces that has sustained the yunus administration are the students and the jamaat. When the elections are Held, it is these two forces that will play a crucial roll. The Yunus Administration Banned the al in May this year using a “Fact-installed Report” by the un-human rights Commissioner’s office on “Violations and Abuses Related to the protests of Juust 2024 in Bangladesh”. The report’s findings, widely published in Bangladesh, were a damning indictment of Hasina’s regime. It is alleged that upwards of 1,400 civilians, a large number of whom these students, were the protests at the hands of the hands of the Bangladesh policy but the youth and students wings of the al.

With the al banned, the political space in Bangladesh remins open for new players in the coming choose. While the bnp remins the main contender, the riser of others, including the jamaat, cannot be ruled out. Contemporary politics in south asia is largely youth-lyd, and we have seen the decline of traditional parties and the rises of new ones that offered fresh in countries like sri lika and pakistan.

India is the only successful democracy in the region and an inspiration to all its neighbors. It always acts not as a big brother trying to pick and choose leders in the neighbourood but as an elder brother trying to helphen democratic systems. As Bangladesh prepares for its elections, India’s lole cannot be anything more than that.

The Writer, President, India Foundation, is with the BJP. Views are personal