Sheikh Hasina, the longest ruling authoritarian prime minister of Bangladesh, occupied the state power in 2008 essentially as a product of the Bush doctrine of the so-called ‘War On Terror’. The fundamental foreign policy agenda of the neo-con administration of President Bush was to impose regime change in Muslim majority countries, either by unilateral military invasion (Iraq and Afghanistan) or engineering internal unrest in the façade of aiding democratic movements. They divided the Islamic world between ‘with us’ and ‘against us’. In their attempt to establish global hegemony, the US decided to appoint strategic allies as regional bullies. Accordingly, India was chosen as the South Asian bully by the Bush administration. The then Secretary of State, Ms. Condoleezza Rice made it clear during her visit to India in 2005 that henceforth, the US would see the region through the prism of Delhi.
The Obama administration clearly followed the Bush doctrine in the case of South Asia. The strategic relationship between the US and India further consolidated with the signing of multiple military treaties during the Obama presidency. After all, post-Cold War, China and Islam are recognized as the two principal enemies against western civilization by the politically influential neoconservative academics like Samuel Huntington, Bernard Lewis, Francis Fukuyama, etc. India on the other hand, is regarded as a trusted ally of the west and powerful enemy to both Islam and China. Washington policy makers are heavily influenced by these scholars.
The BNP-led four-party alliance was in power in 2005. New Delhi, the arch enemy of nationalist and Islamic political forces in Bangladesh, was waiting for the opportunity to topple Prime Minister Khaleda Zia-led democratically elected government. But it was not possible to bring Sheikh Hasina to power straight away without some form of military intervention, external or internal. Unfortunately, it was the Bangladesh army that served as midwife in the birth of a puppet government of Delhi thereby surrendering the country’s sovereignty. Since then, once the proud holder of unquestioned ‘patriotic’ badge, the army of Bangladesh has obeyed every single instruction of Delhi to perpetuate its Hindutvabadi hegemonic rule over a country of nearly ninety percent Muslims.
General Moeen and his cohorts manipulated the 2008 election with full assistance from the Dr. Shamsul Huda led election commission to award Sheikh Hasina a landslide win. As a reward, General Moeen was firstly, allowed to complete his tenure as Army Chief and secondly, to peacefully migrate to the US with his family and wealth. In fact, this arrangement between the general and Hasina was guaranteed by India long before the election was held. Former President of India, Pranab Mukherjee has candidly described the mischievous agreement in his political memoire, The Coalition Years, published by Rupa Publications in 2017 (2017:114).
In 2014, the same Bangladesh army under the then Chief, General Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan assisted the fascist regime to hold a farcical, voter-less, single party election. The army was so blatantly obeying the order of the then Congress government of India that the DGFI Chief, General Akbar felt no shame to personally go to the residence of General Ershad and forcibly escort him to the Dhaka Cantonment hospital to ensure the former president’s allegiance to Sheikh Hasina. Indian Foreign Secretary Ms. Sujatha Singh visited Dhaka to liaise with the government, the Bangladesh army and General Ershad, in order to bury the last segment of democracy in the country. The same DGFI Chief went to Chief Justice S. K. Sinha to force his resignation on gun-point at the instruction of the Prime Minister when policy differences arose between Sheikh Hasina and her one-time most trusted associate in the judiciary. S. K. Sinha has written about this encounter with men in uniform in details in his book, A Broken Dream, published by Amazon in 2018.
The Bangladesh Army repeated its unconstitutional and unpatriotic act under the present Chief, General Aziz in 2018 by enthusiastically participating in unprecedented vote rigging in favor of the ruling Awami League candidates. All the ballot boxes were stuffed with fake ballots a night before the scheduled date of election. It should be noted that the same General Aziz was one of the three master minds of the massacre of Ulemas and Madrasah students on the night of 6 May 2013 in the capital. He was then the Director General of Bangladesh Border Guard. The other two partners in crime against humanity are the current Inspector General of Police, Benazir Ahmed and Major General Zia. They were Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police and Director (Operation), Rapid Action Battalion respectively at that time. The crime of the Ulemas was to peacefully protest against the obscene insult of our prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon Him) by the government supported rabidly Islamophobic elements in Bangladesh.
It is widely believed by the people of Bangladesh that since the military coup of 11 January 2007, no army chief has been appointed without the blessing of Delhi. General Hasan Suhrawardy, a retired Lieutenant General and former GOC of the powerful 9th Division recently confirmed the apprehension. In his interview with a US based Bangladeshi journalist, the General candidly spoke about absolute control of Delhi in running the military in Bangladesh. He claimed that General Aziz, a person with a controversial family background and questionable efficiency, was appointed as the army chief just because India considers him the most obedient among all the obedient generals. A nation keeps an army to safeguard its sovereignty. Sadly, in the case of Bangladesh, the army is instrumental in surrendering the sovereignty to our principal enemy instead of safeguarding it. This is a clear act of treason. The army has lost its courage, professionalism, self-respect and popular support.
At one stage in Hitler’s Germany, the paramilitary organization, Schulzstaffel, more popularly known as the SS, became politically more powerful than the conventional army. The SS was practically the death squad of the fascist ruler. Even the legendary German military hero, Field Marshal Rommel fell victim to its power and influence. He had to commit suicide by taking cyanide when the SS alleged that Rommel conspired against the fuehrer and Hitler gave him the options either to face trial for treason in a Kangaroo court or drink poison and allowed to remain a national hero. Similarly, in Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina has made the police her personal death squad. They have been given complete impunity to indulge in wholesale acts of extortion, torture, extra judicial killing and enforced disappearances. As a result, the police force likes to consider it as the master of the people. Senior police officials publicly boast that it is the force that is keeping Sheikh Hasina in power. A recent case of extra judicial killing of a retired young major of the Bangladesh army has once again exposed the ugly face of a brutal police state.
Rashed Khan, a recently retired major, was driving in a car and stopped at a police check post in Cox’s Bazar, the popular beach resort town in the south of Bangladesh. He felt offended at the dismissive behavior of the police personnel manning the check-post even after showing his military credential. In the ensuing altercation, the police opened fire and killed him on the spot. The dead body was left on the street with hands and feet bound. Such killings of ordinary citizens by the police are almost daily affair in the country under Sheikh Hasina. The law enforcement force always blames the victims after committing murders. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, FIDH and other international human rights organizations have been condemning and demanding cessation of such blatant abuse for a long time without any result. The fascist regime has never shown any remorse for committing these heinous crimes. Now, even army officers are not safe from state terror.
Field Marshal Rommel realized the folly of supporting a fascist ruler only before his death. It is to be seen whether Bangladesh army acknowledges their mistake and makes amends by supporting a peoples’ revolution against the current repressive and corrupt regime in Bangladesh. The autocratic regime of General Ershad collapsed within 24 hours after the army decided to withdraw its support of the dictator in 1990. Three decades later, the people of Bangladesh are again suffering from the repression of an even more cruel dictator. It is therefore, a soul searching time for the Bangladesh army.
*Mahmudur Rahman is a renowned author and editor of a national daily in Bangladesh. He has written more than ten books and is a regular contributor to various distinguished journals. He is a former energy advisor to the government of Bangladesh. He is also the foremost voice against the current autocratic regime in Bangladesh.
