Disaster and darkness have befallen Bangladesh, and it is in a dire situation after the Sheikh Hasina regime’s blatant election farce of 7 January 2024. According to the US and the West, the election was neither free not fair. The grip of fascism has now intensified manyfold and the control of Indian hegemonism in Bangladesh has increased so much that the independence and sovereignty of Bangladesh is now under a grave threat. I wrote elsewhere in an article, and I would like to emphasize it here as well: “If India can manage to occupy Bangladesh (with a puppet government or directly), then the Muslims of Bangladesh would lose their homes, lands, all assets, industries, trade and commerce, their jobs, education, etc. Everything would be occupied by the Indians. The Muslims would be turned into landless peasants in rural areas and shanty dwelling poor workers in towns. They would be subordinate to the Indians, and there may even be genocides on them as in Indian Occupied Kashmir. The same thing happened to the Muslims in Bengal after the Palashi war of 1757, whereas before this war, the Bengal Subah was the richest country, or one of the richest countries, in the world.”
The state of affairs in Bangladesh now is dreary. For the last 15 years, the illegitimate Hasina regime, aided and abetted by India as a mentor, has perpetrated 3 massacres (on the BDR, Jamaat-e-Islami and Hefazat-e-Islam), indiscriminate killings, oppression, repression, mass imprisonment, unbridled corruption and plunder, and above all, it has sold out national interest and surrendered sovereignty to India. The civil service, judiciary, law enforcing agencies, and the top tier of the armed forces have been tamed by money and perks, through induced unbridled corruption by them, letting them indulge in their plunder and lawlessness with impunity. The people have been brutalized by state terrorism, perpetrated by law enforcing agencies and the armed ruling party thugs unleashed on the unarmed people and the opposition parties. All rights of the people have been denied and abused, with the press gagged and muzzled, and any criticism of the government dealt with extrajudicial killings, torture, imprisonment or any other brutal reprisals.
The economy also has been going through an alarming and dreadful downturn. The country had been doing well for a developing nation, with development of agriculture, and industry and commerce, in the main, by the private sector. But the regime’s reckless corruption, and plunder of funds of all development projects by inflating the budgets a few times the original, plunder of the banks and foreign reserves, etc. have turned the economy to a near failed economy.
So, how do we rescue the country from this deep abyss? It is struggle, and only struggle that can rescue the country now. On 28 October 2023, the brutal regime attacked and dispersed the peaceful mammoth gathering of 1 million leading opposition the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) members and supporters. And within two months of this, on a pre-election crackdown, they threw 25,000 BNP leaders and activists to prison, with 16 killed, many brutally tortured, and 5,500 wounded. Before this crackdown, over the last 15 years, 1,500 BNP members were killed by the regime, 600 were abducted, most of them killed, 100,000 were thrown to prison, and false law suits were lodged against 5 million members and supporters. Thus, the fascist government brutally repressed the peaceful movements.
But immediately after the so-called election of 7 January 2024, there is now a movement, spreading like a wild fire, in social media as well as on the ground in Bangladesh, with slogans of “Boycott India” and “Boycott AL”, whenever possible, openly or secretly. Right now this is the right movement, which motivates people against the present enemies: the fascists and the hegemonists. We must resist fascism and hegemonism. The boycott movement motivates the people. We must motivate, unite and mobilize the people. When the people are motivated, united and mobilized, they can do wonders. We can aim at a mass uprising, or look at our own history of movements, and also at many ongoing struggles in the world now and in recent history, and decide our course of action. Bangladesh is going through a bad patch in its history.
Many countries have that from time to time. For example, Europe went through a dark age for 900 years, between the 5th and 14th centuries, after the fall of Rome. Similarly, the Muslims went through a dark age of about 100 years after the fall of the Ottoman (Osman) empire in WW1. It’s only now that the Muslims are making advancements in education, science and technology, and they are also showing signs of unity. Bangladesh went through a colonial period for 190 years, after being the richest country, or one of the richest countries, in the world. The Pakistan period of Bangladesh ended with a genocide on Bangladesh in 1971 , and a freedom war in which Bangladesh was victorious and it emerged as an independent country on 16 December 1971.
Bangladesh has become a victim of geopolitics, since 1971. During the independence war in 1971 the geopolitical line up was: Pakistan, the US and China were on one side, and Bangladesh, India and the Soviet Union on the other side. Bangladesh achieved independence under Indo-Soviet hegemony. But the Indo-Soviet hegemony, along with Mujib’s brutal fascism, was defeated through the glorious army-people uprisings of 15 August and 7 November 1975. The US played a role in organizing the uprising of 15 August 1975. For 31 years, from 1975 to 2006, Bangladesh thwarted Indian hegemony, although India kept on conspiring, such as assassinating Zia in its plot.
The geopolitical scenario changed with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. India moved nearer to the US with the help of Israel, and in 2001 formed an alliance with the US through a joint declaration. 2001 was the year when the US launched a 20-year war in Afghanistan, Middle East and North African
(MENA) countries, in which 5 countries, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen were destroyed, and 5 million people were killed, with many more wounded and made homeless.
Taking advantage of the US alliance, India planned to control Bangladesh and plunder it most recklessly, as it did during 1972-75 in alliance with the Soviet Union. By 2005, India-US decided joint action on Bangladesh. The conspiracy of 1/11, 2007 was hatched by India-AL, and were actively supported by the US and its allies (the Tuesday Club of ambassadors: US, UK, EU, Canada, Australia and Japan were very active). They brutally and extensively repressed the opposition BNP and its allies, and rigged the election of 2008 with pre-determined results. Hasina was installed in power by the conspiracy and she is still there in power by rigging the elections of 2014, 2018 and 2024. From 2021, and especially in 2023, it looked as though the US and its allies would change the fascist Hasina regime, but it is thought that India and Israel persuaded the US and its allies not to change the regime, for India wanted to continue controlling Bangladesh and perpetrating reckless plunder.
BNP, being pro-US, surrendered to the India-US machinations, and bore severe repressions, as mentioned above. Although the BNP launched big movements in 2013 and 2015, they had to stop the movements because of the opposition of the US and its allies. In the main because of India-AL conspiracies, the opposition parties have become weak, yet unable to unite and launch a united movement, although millions of people joined the rallies of the BNP in 2022 and 2023. The opposition parties now have an opportunity to unite and join the “resist hegemonism and fascism movement” through the boycott India, boycott AL, whenever possible, openly or secretly, movement.
Bangladesh has a proud history of struggle to liberate themselves from colonialism. From its freedom from colonialism in 1947, it has a history of movements in 1952, 1954, the great mass uprising of 1969, the great freedom war of 1971, the glorious army-people uprisings of 15 August and 7 November 1975, and the great mass uprising of 1990.
Bangladesh today needs another robust struggle against fascism and hegemonism. The boycott India, boycott AL whenever possible, openly or secretly, could form the stepping stone of such a robust and resolute struggle. We are determined to defeat fascism and hegemonism, and establish a patriotic and democratic government. We are determined to rescue the country from the deep abyss, India-AL has thrown it in.
*The writer is a London-based political analyst, commentator and a former activist and columnist constantly campaigning for Freedom and Democracy, Justice, Human Rights and Harmonious Development in Bangladesh. He appeared many times on Bengali TV talk shows in London speaking on the political affairs of Bangladesh. A retired computer consultant with a Master’s degree in Mathematics, he left his PhD studies in the UK to travel to Kolkata, India, in 1971 to join the Independence War of Bangladesh. He is a recipient of Independence Award. He is also the co-author of several books.
January 28, 2024
The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of Aequitas Review.
