“Illegal or legal, I am the Prime Minister.” ~Sheikh Hasina, September 25, 2021, New York.
Strange but true. “Illegal” and “Mother of Mafia,” the two terms seem to have established themselves in the political parlance of contemporary Bangladesh. One needs not be an Archimedes to understand who the terms refer to. They are openly talked about outside the country. At home, people say them within their lips. If the audio goes out, the dragons of the Digital Security Act will swoop in from nowhere and immediately dump them in prison, if they are lucky. The unlucky ones will be shoved into the torture cells from where few could escape or see daylight again. That is today’s Bangladesh!
Election, Thy Name is Farce!
The term “Illegal” came to be used after Sheikh Hasina Wazed was installed as the Prime Minister resulting from a largely external undertaking. The military driven caretaker administration was an accomplice. The India-led orchestration saw to it that its protégé Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League won the December 2008 elections. The Awami victory was thus seen as illegal and unmandated by the people. Under her rule, the managed election came to be the order of business not only at the national level, but also at nearly 6,000 local levels, most of which ensured the “victory” for the ruling entity.
India was at the game for years; its objective was long drawn. J N Dixit, its one-time External Affairs Secretary, confirmed it in his book, Liberation and Beyond. New Delhi wanted full control of its north eastern flank for geo-political advantage to reach its inaccessible Seven Sisters, the romantic name given to the seven poverty stricken and politically volatile states that lay beyond.
Hasina Trained to Serve India
An India-lover Hasina had been extensively tutored by the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s external intelligence agency, during her six-year self-exile, following the ouster and death of her dictator father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975. RAW turned Hasina’s grief into vengeance for which it promised all help in return for her loyal service to the hegemon neighbor. After a few breaks, the Indian Chanakyas needed to put their disciple back on the command post. The Bangladesh army chief, General Moeen U Ahmed was handy to betray his benefactor, Begum Khaleda Zia, who had earlier elevated him to the position over a few seniors.
Post 9/11, the US-led West developed a make-belief phobia of Islamic fundamentalism. The Hindu Chanakyas did not have to work much to convince them that if the secularist Awami League did not win the next elections, Bangladesh would turn into a bastion of Muslim terrorists. The result was 1/11 (January 11, 2007) : an army led takeover in Dhaka. Though the West does not admit it openly now, it mutely acknowledges that the Chanakyas misled them. The common people in Bangladesh have since been paying the heavy price.
Illegal
The subsequent elections were displays of farce of the highest order. No or little opposition participation was allowed. In January 2014, major opposition parties boycotted and there was no contest, meaning no election, in more than half of the constituencies. The whole world condemned it. In December 2018, it was dubbed as the “Midnight Election” because ballot boxes were pre-filled for chosen candidates the previous night under official supervision. Hasina’s team won an unprecedented 98% seats. Again, the condemnation poured in.
No elaboration needed to explain why the Prime Minister and her administration have been called “illegal” since 2009. The people lost everything they had aspired to–democracy, human rights, freedom, rule of law and sustainable development. Those in the lower strata of life lost the means of survival, forcing them to seek opportunities elsewhere, only to land in foreign camps or drown in the high seas.
Even Sheikh Hasina herself admitted it, albeit by default, at a press briefing on September 25, 2021 in New York. “Illegal or legal, I am the Prime Minister,” she retorted to her critics. The briefing was in the aftermath of a brutal assault on a journalist who questioned the cost-effectiveness of the two-week long trip in a chartered 787 Boeing during a pandemic. It was on the occasion of the annual United Nations General Assembly session. Due to the pandemic, most world leaders preferred to stay home and participate virtually or attended with bare minimum aides. But the Bangladesh Prime Minister chose a 350 seat Dreamliner that carried the PM alone. Travel for the large entourage of 141 loyalists had to be arranged separately. The extravaganza seemed to result in a showcase of watering a two storey high tree at the UN Plaza.
The Mother of Mafia
In February 2021, the Qatar based Al Jazeera published an investigative story titled “All the Prime Minister’s Men.” (Please see All the Prime Minister’s Men | Podcast News | Al Jazeera)
The authentic reporting revealed how the Prime Minister and her army chief, General Aziz Ahmed, were party to high level corruption and terror acts in the country. Dissident former Colonel Shahiduddin Khan had earlier revealed a telephone conversation he had with Aziz, a batchmate and old friend, in which the general, perhaps unwittingly but candidly, admitted how top aides of the Prime Minister ran the mafia operations in the country. Defense Adviser General Tarique Siddiqui, a Hasina relative and confidante, was a key person in those operations. According to Aziz, New Delhi controlled all key civil and military appointments. The term “Mother of Mafia” for Sheikh Hasina came from Colonel Shahid and it became an instant hit.
The administration of President Joe Biden imposed sanctions on a few key officials of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) of Bangladesh in early December 2021. The UK, the UN, the EU and other international authorities are said to take the US lead and contemplate similar punitive actions against Bangladesh. While most rights organizations felt happy at the US move, they thought the measures were too little too late. They also wondered why many big fishes, including the “Mother of Mafia,” were left out of the dragnet.
Hasina’s Survival
Thanks to Indian patronage and its global clout, the Hasina administration enjoyed a 13-year survival, if not honeymoon, with the outside world. It felt immune to foreign interference and continued its high-handed wrong doings unabated. RAW-sponsored writers of Bangladesh and India kept fooling the outside world by showcasing a few samples of economic progress that benefitted the ruling coterie only but did little for the suffering masses. Increased number of Bangladeshi migrant workers facing hardships and disasters abroad bear testimony. Being a reluctant host of nearly a million Rohingya refugees from neighboring Myanmar since 2017, the regime generated global sympathy.
US Sanctions
Washington’s limited punitive action seemed to come as a bolt from the blue for Dhaka. It was not unexpected. The probe was in the offing for some time. Despite all the self-serving drum beats of progress, the local and international authorities monitored Bangladesh’s repeated rights abuses very closely. The US Annual Country Reports cited the democracy and rights transgressions year after year. Most rights organizations repeatedly warned against the gross violations that included torture, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and rape in the country for years. These organizations included Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International (AI), Asian Human Rights Commission, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), International Federation for Human Rights (FIDA), International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and PEN America. The Coalition for Human Rights and Democracy in Bangladesh (CHRD Bangladesh), since February 2021, continued to make appeals to US lawmakers and government to help the people of Bangladesh out of the sufferings from Indian-backed Hasina’s fascism in the country.
A bipartisan Congressional Committee in May 2020 recommended punitive actions against the RAB for its gross human rights violations. The administration of Donald Trump, with which the Hasina regime had a favorable standing, did nothing. (Reportedly, Hasina and her business partners spent $100 million for a Trump victory in 2020). With the coming of Joe Biden in the White House, things seemed to have changed. The new President made human rights, democracy, election integrity and anti-authoritarianism a part of his foreign policy objectives. Bangladesh miserably failed in all these areas and much more.
Recently, 12 rights organizations urged the United Nations not to recruit RAB for its international peacekeeping missions. Their European counterparts made similar requests to the European Parliament to enforce sanctions on the rights abusers in Bangladesh.
The Mother of Mafia is definitely shaken but does not seem to be overly concerned. First, she destroyed the opposition forces in the country beyond local repair. Second, she has strong political backing from her sponsor, India. Third, China continues to bankroll her coffers at a huge premium to the future generations–so that the country does not falter in feeding its millions.
*The writer is a human rights and democracy activist with a few publications to his credit.
January 31, 2022
The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of Aequitas Review.
