Bhopinder Singh | Bangladesh, Under Yunus, Appears To Be Sinking Rapidly Into Planned Chaos

The increasingly controversial hero of the Bangladesh freedom struggle, “Bangabandhu” (Friend of the Bengalis) Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, must be rolling in his grave seeing the increasingly chaotic situation in the homeland that he had carved out of Pakistan over a quarter of a century ago. The curse of violence that birthed the genocidal reality of its independence was soon followed by the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman himself. Since its independence in 1971, the new country of Bangladesh struggled with a tinderbox-like status with nearly 30 attempted coup d’etats, communal polarisation, and vengeful politics that flirted with revisionism and extremist tendencies.

Today, the unrest that followed the ouster of Mujibur Rahman’s daughter, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has deteriorated to levels of national implosion. The incumbent and lame-duck government of Muhammad Yunus is desperately stitching a narrative with its core cadre of radicalised youth, hiding his own political ambitions, and to

simultaneously maintain the pretence of a democratic do-gooder. The fact is that he is conveniently allowing an expedient narrative to emerge that willy-nilly affords a free run to all kinds of extremist elements as that keeps relatively moderate forces led by Mujibur Rahman’s daughter, Sheikh Hasina, discredited and exiled. Herein, the regression to portents of majoritarianism and unbridled mobocracy (with acts like the lynching of minorities) is becoming an automatic corollary.

Naturally, the powers-that-be in Dhaka must keep the societal kettle boiling to ensure an irate, toxic and highly polarised society till the general election due in February 2026.

Unsurprisingly, the mysterious murder of a fiery youth leader (that helps build tempers against the moderate forces and the so-called “pro-India” lobby) and the equally-mysterious allowance of riotous mobs without the timely interference of law enforcement agencies or the fire department, seemingly facilitates the vandalism. The build-up up to the situation suggests that there was enough notice, alerts and calls to intervene by the authorities -- yet, the Yunus administration tellingly chose to watch the situation slide on the sidelines. These prevailing tensions can only help one side between the political options of the relatively moderate forces, versus the extremist forces, currently led by Muhammad Yunus.

In any democracy, one key enemy of the extremist forces is always the prevalence of the “independent media”. It is important to silence this section of society so that those in power can erase and rewrite history, disallow free questioning, and enable untruth to spread freely. Recently, Bangladesh has been in the throes of reimagining history and part of that has been the diminishing of the role that India played in securing its independence. If anything, India and the so-called “pro-India” forces (the relatively moderate elements like Sheikh Hasina) are lumped together as common enemies. Therefore, seemingly officially-blessed riots targeted leading media houses as they routinely questioned the Yunus administration and all that it stood for, overtly or covertly.

Ironically, speaking in the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan (then comprising East and West Pakistan) in 1956, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had said that “freedom of expression” does not specifically cover “freedom of the press”. He said: “It has not been specifically mentioned in the Constitution because they want to suppress their political opponents. In East Bengal, the editors are called and it is said ‘you cannot write this… you cannot write that’. They cannot even write facts… We want that freedom of press should be guaranteed specifically.” Today, not only is Mujibur Rahman diminished in the national consciousness, but even the fight for the freedom of the press, as eloquently pursued by him, remains a forgotten footnote in the larger memory of Bangladesh. Not only is the dispensation of the day in Dhaka fighting to erase his and his daughter’s relevance in the national leadership, but doing so, by targeting the hallowed precincts of the “independent media” that the Bengalis have traditionally championed, and are known for.

While Muhammad Yunus has issued a rote statement, saying that “journalists must be able to work, without fear… violence against the media is violence against truth”; his government’s inability to control the vandalism reeks of duplicitousness and sheer malintent. An apolitical body, Transparency Independent Bangladesh (TIB), did some plain speaking when it noted gravely: “The government has failed to take any effective stance to confront and prevent this situation… the State itself has expanded the space for intolerance, violence and instability”. Sadly, this clear evasion of responsibility and failure to protect the independent media and the minorities does not spoil the electoral chances of the Yunus-led forces, but strengthens it.

So far, Muhammad Yunus has failed the mandate of a non-partisan caretaker. He has belied hopes of being a progressive reformer and has often relied on bigoted instincts that seek to rescript the future narrative of Bangladesh. The undoing of a economic miracle, that once resulted in Bangladesh moving ahead of India in GDP per capita for a brief period, is getting sacrificed at the altar of religious extremism and unhinged politics. This does not augur well for the stability of a nation with 175 million Bangladeshis.

In the melee of violence and chaos, the students’ movement (with groups like Inqilab Moncho, Bangladesh Chhatra League, Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, etc) has become disorganised and chaotic, thereby strengthening the rationale of Muhammad Yunus to continue. All this points to the rather Machiavellian moves that can only be attributed directly to the personal ambitions of Muhammad Yunus, as has regrettably been the wont of so many leaders preceding him like Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina.

The writer is a retired lieutenant-general and a former lieutenant-governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Puducherry