The origin of the developments that led to the ouster of Sheikh Hasina on August 5 can be traced back to the assassination of her father Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rahman on August 15, 1975, and even further back to August 14, 1947, when Pakistan was created and actual foundation of the concept of Bangladesh was laid. Perhaps in no country of the world, the Father of the Nation-cum-Prime Minister was, along with almost the entire family, killed by his army just three and a half years after its creation. Not only that on November 3 the same year four of the top leaders of Awami League and former ministers were killed in jail by the military. Some middle-level army officers staged a coup and installed Khondakar Mushtaque Ahmed, a minister in the Mujib cabinet as the country’s President. The latter appointed Ziar-ur-Rahman as the army chief of staff replacing the incumbent officer. True, India too lost Mahatma Gandhi to an assassin’s bullet within six months of the independence and the first Prime Minister of Pakistan Liaquat Ali Khan was killed within four years. Its Father of the Nation Mohammad Ali Jinnah died of cancer on September 11, 1948. But in the case of Mujib, the entire family and top leadership of the Awami League were wiped out barring his two daughters, Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana who were abroad. While the killing of Mujib and the top echelon of his party remained a mystery his critics are of the view that he was presiding over the most corrupt government and promoting nepotism. He had earlier in 1975 imposed a one-party rule in his country. Apart from this, a section of the army felt that he used to discriminate against the military, and promoted his militia. It was alleged that he used to look with suspicion at the Bengali army personnel who did not take part in the liberation struggle or who came to Bangladesh after its creation from their posting in West Pakistan.
Bi-polar politics
Anyway, ever since his killing Bangladesh had witnessed the emergence of bi-polar politics of extreme kind. One was that of Awami League, which broke from the Muslim League in 1949, and the other led by General Zia-ur-Rahman, the man who staged the military revolt against the Pakistan army on March 26, 1971, that is a day after the crackdown on Bengalis. Zia, then a Major, in a radio broadcast on that day from Chittagong, declared independent Bangladesh. Chief of army staff Zia took over the reign of power on November 7, 1975, just a day after a counter-coup staged by Brigadier Khalid Musharraf, said to be a pro-Mujib officer. This happened three months after the killing of Mujib and the subsequent cold-blooded murder of four ministers on November 3. However, it could not be established that the Awami League saw Zia-ur-Rahman’s hand in the killing of Mujib. Zia, who had served in the Pakistani army, took part in the 1965 war against India. He was a part of the military unit that fought battles in the KhemKaran sector of Indian Punjab.
Pakistan factor
Some observers think that Mujib was killed because he grew too close to India. Many in the establishment were not prepared to accept this changing reality. They were of the view that they fought for independence from Pakistan because of the domination of West Pakistani politicians, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto being the most prominent, and its army, and would not like India to control it. On the other hand, the Awami League always considered any such element as the corroborator among Bengalis who opposed Mujib’s policy. Some in the Awami League itself were not prepared to go along with Mujib and were of the view that settlement should have been made within Pakistan with greater autonomy to East Pakistan as envisaged by the Six-Point Movement of Bangla Bandhu himself. His minister Khondakar Mushtaque was of the same view.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party
As Zia was appointed by Khondakar a few days after the August 15 coup, the Awami League looked at him with suspicion–though it is also a fact that he was the leading light of the liberation struggle.
However, after coming to power Zia formed the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which is now led by his widow Begum Khaleda Zia, who had now got released from prison.
Whatever his contributions to the liberation war Zia, no doubt, adopted the policy of maintaining distance from India. He improved his relationship with Pakistan and was among the brains behind the concept of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Though he was killed in an aborted coup on May 30, 1981, before SAARC came into being. The idea was to keep all the seven countries of the region on equal footing. This suited Pakistan which was then under the rule of General Zia-ul-Haq.
Zia-ur-Rahman indeed promoted military officers who could not take part in the war or were in West Pakistan. It is also said that he posted some officers involved in Mujib’s killing as diplomats abroad. He made General Husain Mohammad Ershad as the army chief. The latter came to Bangladesh only in 1973 after being released by (West) Pakistan. Ershad took over in a bloodless coup a year after the killing of Zia. He formed his party and ruled the country till 1990 when democracy returned to the country.
Since then Bangladesh had democracy, barring for some months in 2007-08.
Past legacy
The problem with Bangladesh is that both Awami League and BNP have a strong core base of about one-third population each. The situation changes only when the neutral voters switch sides.
What is ironic is that in 1990 both Begum Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina, who had returned to her country about a decade ago, were at the forefront of the movement against Gen Ershad’s dictatorship.
Independent Bangladesh watchers think that Hasina botched up in dealing with the latest crisis. Though she had been lording over the country as an authoritarian ruler for 15 years and hanged many of those involved in the killing of her father, she crossed all the limits when she dubbed the protestors as terrorists, traitors, and Razakars, the term used for those who opposed the liberation war for the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. This was bound to backfire as no one can deny the fact that many of those in the BNP were at the forefront of the liberation war.
Besides, the country came into existence 53 years back while the students who led the present uprising are in their 20s. Her statement worked as a fuel in fire.
As the history of the sub-continent is so intertwined it is not wise to look things in total isolation. Her own father started his political innings in Muslim League, and as a young activist accompanied Mahatma Gandhi and the then Prime Minister of Bengal Husain Shaheed Suhrawardy to Noakhali to end partition-eve communal riots in October-November 1946. Mujib then reportedly expressed his willingness to work for peace in riots-hit Bihar. A quarter century later Bihari Muslims in Bangladesh held him responsible for their killing after the Pakistan army crackdown on Bengalis on March 25, 1971.
Bhutto’s role
It cannot be denied that in the first decade of Pakistan Bengalis dominated the politics of the country. Khwaja Nazimuddin, Mohammad Ali Bogra, Husain Shaheed Suhrawardy, and Iskandar Mirza were all Bengalis who served as the Governor General, Prime Minister, or military ruler of the country. It was the takeover by Gen Ayub Khan in 1958 and subsequently by Gen Yahya Khan and the dirty game played by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto that changed the entire equation. With the help of Yahya the Peoples Party of Pakistan leader denied Mujib the opportunity to become PM though the latter had won the election held in December 1970. Another Bengali Nurul Amin was handpicked by Yahya on December 7, 1971, and made Prime Minister of Pakistan. Thus on the day Bangladesh was created on December 16, 1971, he and not Mujib, another Bengali duly elected by the people was made the PM. He also served as the Acting President of the truncated Pakistan for a few days between January 20 and 28, 1972. Later Bhutto made him Vice President for a year.
Language riots
The strange aspect of the politics of East Pakistan (earlier name of Bangladesh) is that when the language riots took place in February 1952 demanding Bengali along with Urdu be made the national language, the Prime Minister of Pakistan was a Bengali, Khwaja Nazimuddin and the chief minister of the East Pakistan was Nurul Amin. It was they who initially did not accept the demand, which was however conceded in the 1956 Constitution. Though Bengali was spoken in the entire Bengal it is also a fact that Urdu flourished in 18th and 19th centuries in Delhi, Lucknow, Patna, Murshidabad and Dhaka–last two are in Bengal.
Husain Shaheed Suhrawardy, the founder of Awami Muslim League, which later became Awami League, is the rare politician after whom something has been named in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The Awami League was also at the forefront of the language movement. Suhrawardy, however, was popular in West Pakistan as well. Mujib was his young disciple, though it is also a fact that as the Prime Minister of the then Bengal Suhrawardy was responsible for the Great Calcutta Killing in August 1946 following the call of Direct Action Day of the Muslim League. Some 15,000 people were killed.
The present turmoil in Bangladesh should be seen in this backdrop.
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