Duel for democracy gives a hood to what Delhi thinks
M. Shahidul Islam
“Juddo mane shotru shotru khela, juddo mane amar proti tomar obohela” (war means gaming as foes; war means your disregard for me)-Poet Helal Hafiz.
If there are two values and rules governing the Athenians and the Spartans, they must be at war, so went the logic of the Spartan war. Functional democracies, on the other hand, are often at peace with each other while innate intent to divide and rule the weaker neighbours changes the value system and keeps tension brewing by instilling irremovable flakes of mistrusts.
The diverse values and interests of Bangladesh’s ruling elites are stirring war within and may suck in potentates from without under the guise of umpire ship.
Sponsoring autocracy
Signs of that are there to see and comprehend. Bangladesh may as well be already at war with itself, as it was 44 years ago when its aspiration for democracy was crushed by a brutal military dictator named Yahya Khan. If India then advised Yahya Khan to do whatever he thought was best for his people, as did a visiting BJP leader recently to PM Sheikh Hasina, India’s hands would have been tied by a militarily monstrous Pakistan to date and its dream of becoming a global power would have been shattered in the cradle.
The other aspect of such a carte blanch is that it monopolizes the thinking of an entire nation in the persona of an individual. Endorsing that whatever PM Hasina thinks best for her people is the best for Bangladesh tantamount to sponsoring autocracy and dictatorship in Bangladesh by a leader from a country known as the largest democracy of the world. This is hypocrisy at its cresting height.
Notwithstanding what the religious fanatic BJP regime thinks of Bangladesh and its people, the ongoing democratic movement in Bangladesh is on the throes of a pyrrhic victory. The long-awaited sun of victory is gradually peeping above the distant horizon.
Irony is: there are whispers in the grapevine that the government will kill more of its freedom-loving citizens due to a regional power turning a blind eye on whatever rights violations may occur in Bangladesh and however undemocratic the regime in Dhaka may be.
Time has come to debunk that ‘India myth’ too to ensure a clean-slate victory of the people of Bangladesh. Although one doesn’t expect much when a showdown between two rival groups is trumpeted and pre-declared, the January 5 showdown in particular, and the agitation that had built up since, speaks a volume about what awaits the nation of Bangladesh. For sure, the invincibility of Sheikh Hasina regime was shattered on January 5 and the regime will be weaker by the day as the movement surges ahead.
Fear factor removed
Contrary to what many might say that the day brought in sufferings and sadness to the people of the nation, along with its concomitant deadly consequences of murder, arson and anarchy, we find January 5 as the day when people of this nation had begun to redeem their lost hopes after almost a decade-long uncertainties.
On this day, which the BNP-led opposition touted as the ‘day of democracy’s death,’ people’s fear of authoritative aggression had withered. They also had seen firsthand how the government mandarins, including the PM, had lied to assert that the BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia was not kept confined at her Gulshan office. She was rather free to go anywhere and the added security was offered in compliance to her alleged request earlier for extra security. If lies had ranking, this would score 100 out of 100.
The nation, and the world, also witnessed how the ruling party cadres of varied hues paraded across the country, including in the capital Dhaka, many with deadly arms, while opposition protests were censored by imposing section 144. Then again, people showed if the government is disrespectful of law, so will be the people. The opposition too hence broke section 144 everywhere. The invalidity of section 144 means the last peaceful power of police has been squandered. Is declaration of emergency next? After all, the day had sullied the last vestige of government’s standing before the people by making a mockery of section 144 which neither side complied with.
The incidents of January 5 also proved anew that the regime of Sheikh Hasina is too scared to allow any public gathering of opposition parties in the nation’s capital due to the potential of such a gathering turning into an instant mass uprising. Yet, that a mass uprising is very much in the making could be seen in the scale of protests that had erupted across the country on January 5.
The Govt. boxed
In the days bygone when politics was not as much censored as is being done now, a popular leader could have easily cashed on such a volatile situation by calling for a march toward Dhaka to overthrow the government unless the legitimate demands of the people were met in a peaceful and civic manner. The regime of Sheikh Hasina is not allowing that to happen peacefully, provoking more bloodbath to grip the nation, and making the nation more vulnerable to external meddling.
The draconian postures, the unforgivable and unforgettable lies and deceits, cannot mask the fact that the government had boxed itself into a corner now and it only has one choice: start a dialogue with the BNP-led 20 party compact or face continuous agitations of harsher magnitudes.
What that translates into is that the regime may cling onto power many more days, weeks or months, but none of those days will be peaceful and tension free and more earth will erase off its feet each passing day. In the long run, the ongoing instability will undo whatever good the PM claimed in her national broadcast on January 5 to have made in the social and economic fronts.
Besides, the instances being created of mendacity, of hoodwinks, deceits, oppression and suppression of fundamental rights of association and expression of free wills, as are guaranteed in Articles 11 and 26-46 of the Constitution, will come to haunt the AL while it’s out of power.
Amidst this chaos, the regional matrix must be measured accurately. Foremost, does anyone wonder why the ruling coterie keep repeating these mistakes in a recurring manner and why it even incites and provokes anarchy by taunting the BNP that ‘it’s not capable of launching any effective movement?’
Regional matrix
The reasons are deep-rooted and bone-chilling, to say the least. PM Sheikh Hasina has the habit of conjuring up instant fantasy without a blink. She is an adroit gambler too. Following the BDR mutiny on February 25, 2009, she kept the three forces chiefs engaged at her official residence while much of the killings occurred in Peelkhana barrack. One of those chiefs told this scribe that she had confided to them of the readiness of the Indian armed forces for an instantaneous ‘Indian military intervention’ inside Bangladesh if the army moved in to quell the BDR rebellion.
How rational and realistic it is that India would intervene militarily in an internal affair of Bangladesh? The answer lies in knowing first what the incident is; how does it impact India’s national interest; what’re the costs and gains, and, how free are Indian hands to surmount a crisis inside Bangladesh and walk away as the victor.
India today is not only plagued by increased internal insurgencies, terrorism and a flailing economy, it’s forces are engaged in what seems like a routine shooting war with Pakistan while serious attention has to be accorded simultaneously to the Chinese borders due to Delhi’s premature desire to emerge as a military super power (without first becoming a permanent member of the UN Security Council) and the Chinese preparedness to tackle that looming threat.
This reality precludes Indian policy makers from venturing into a military offensive inside Bangladesh where about a million people are armed and trained to tackle any threat to Bangladesh’s national sovereignty?
As such, the people of Bangladesh are free to decide whatever they think is best for their nation, without fear or prejudice, while India should mind its own troubling home which faces disintegration from within and existential dangers from without.
Holiday
M. Shahidul Islam
If there are two values and rules governing the Athenians and the Spartans, they must be at war, so went the logic of the Spartan war. Functional democracies, on the other hand, are often at peace with each other while innate intent to divide and rule the weaker neighbours changes the value system and keeps tension brewing by instilling irremovable flakes of mistrusts.
The diverse values and interests of Bangladesh’s ruling elites are stirring war within and may suck in potentates from without under the guise of umpire ship.
Sponsoring autocracy
Signs of that are there to see and comprehend. Bangladesh may as well be already at war with itself, as it was 44 years ago when its aspiration for democracy was crushed by a brutal military dictator named Yahya Khan. If India then advised Yahya Khan to do whatever he thought was best for his people, as did a visiting BJP leader recently to PM Sheikh Hasina, India’s hands would have been tied by a militarily monstrous Pakistan to date and its dream of becoming a global power would have been shattered in the cradle.
The other aspect of such a carte blanch is that it monopolizes the thinking of an entire nation in the persona of an individual. Endorsing that whatever PM Hasina thinks best for her people is the best for Bangladesh tantamount to sponsoring autocracy and dictatorship in Bangladesh by a leader from a country known as the largest democracy of the world. This is hypocrisy at its cresting height.
Notwithstanding what the religious fanatic BJP regime thinks of Bangladesh and its people, the ongoing democratic movement in Bangladesh is on the throes of a pyrrhic victory. The long-awaited sun of victory is gradually peeping above the distant horizon.
Irony is: there are whispers in the grapevine that the government will kill more of its freedom-loving citizens due to a regional power turning a blind eye on whatever rights violations may occur in Bangladesh and however undemocratic the regime in Dhaka may be.
Time has come to debunk that ‘India myth’ too to ensure a clean-slate victory of the people of Bangladesh. Although one doesn’t expect much when a showdown between two rival groups is trumpeted and pre-declared, the January 5 showdown in particular, and the agitation that had built up since, speaks a volume about what awaits the nation of Bangladesh. For sure, the invincibility of Sheikh Hasina regime was shattered on January 5 and the regime will be weaker by the day as the movement surges ahead.
Fear factor removed
Contrary to what many might say that the day brought in sufferings and sadness to the people of the nation, along with its concomitant deadly consequences of murder, arson and anarchy, we find January 5 as the day when people of this nation had begun to redeem their lost hopes after almost a decade-long uncertainties.
On this day, which the BNP-led opposition touted as the ‘day of democracy’s death,’ people’s fear of authoritative aggression had withered. They also had seen firsthand how the government mandarins, including the PM, had lied to assert that the BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia was not kept confined at her Gulshan office. She was rather free to go anywhere and the added security was offered in compliance to her alleged request earlier for extra security. If lies had ranking, this would score 100 out of 100.
The nation, and the world, also witnessed how the ruling party cadres of varied hues paraded across the country, including in the capital Dhaka, many with deadly arms, while opposition protests were censored by imposing section 144. Then again, people showed if the government is disrespectful of law, so will be the people. The opposition too hence broke section 144 everywhere. The invalidity of section 144 means the last peaceful power of police has been squandered. Is declaration of emergency next? After all, the day had sullied the last vestige of government’s standing before the people by making a mockery of section 144 which neither side complied with.
The incidents of January 5 also proved anew that the regime of Sheikh Hasina is too scared to allow any public gathering of opposition parties in the nation’s capital due to the potential of such a gathering turning into an instant mass uprising. Yet, that a mass uprising is very much in the making could be seen in the scale of protests that had erupted across the country on January 5.
The Govt. boxed
In the days bygone when politics was not as much censored as is being done now, a popular leader could have easily cashed on such a volatile situation by calling for a march toward Dhaka to overthrow the government unless the legitimate demands of the people were met in a peaceful and civic manner. The regime of Sheikh Hasina is not allowing that to happen peacefully, provoking more bloodbath to grip the nation, and making the nation more vulnerable to external meddling.
The draconian postures, the unforgivable and unforgettable lies and deceits, cannot mask the fact that the government had boxed itself into a corner now and it only has one choice: start a dialogue with the BNP-led 20 party compact or face continuous agitations of harsher magnitudes.
What that translates into is that the regime may cling onto power many more days, weeks or months, but none of those days will be peaceful and tension free and more earth will erase off its feet each passing day. In the long run, the ongoing instability will undo whatever good the PM claimed in her national broadcast on January 5 to have made in the social and economic fronts.
Besides, the instances being created of mendacity, of hoodwinks, deceits, oppression and suppression of fundamental rights of association and expression of free wills, as are guaranteed in Articles 11 and 26-46 of the Constitution, will come to haunt the AL while it’s out of power.
Amidst this chaos, the regional matrix must be measured accurately. Foremost, does anyone wonder why the ruling coterie keep repeating these mistakes in a recurring manner and why it even incites and provokes anarchy by taunting the BNP that ‘it’s not capable of launching any effective movement?’
Regional matrix
The reasons are deep-rooted and bone-chilling, to say the least. PM Sheikh Hasina has the habit of conjuring up instant fantasy without a blink. She is an adroit gambler too. Following the BDR mutiny on February 25, 2009, she kept the three forces chiefs engaged at her official residence while much of the killings occurred in Peelkhana barrack. One of those chiefs told this scribe that she had confided to them of the readiness of the Indian armed forces for an instantaneous ‘Indian military intervention’ inside Bangladesh if the army moved in to quell the BDR rebellion.
How rational and realistic it is that India would intervene militarily in an internal affair of Bangladesh? The answer lies in knowing first what the incident is; how does it impact India’s national interest; what’re the costs and gains, and, how free are Indian hands to surmount a crisis inside Bangladesh and walk away as the victor.
India today is not only plagued by increased internal insurgencies, terrorism and a flailing economy, it’s forces are engaged in what seems like a routine shooting war with Pakistan while serious attention has to be accorded simultaneously to the Chinese borders due to Delhi’s premature desire to emerge as a military super power (without first becoming a permanent member of the UN Security Council) and the Chinese preparedness to tackle that looming threat.
This reality precludes Indian policy makers from venturing into a military offensive inside Bangladesh where about a million people are armed and trained to tackle any threat to Bangladesh’s national sovereignty?
As such, the people of Bangladesh are free to decide whatever they think is best for their nation, without fear or prejudice, while India should mind its own troubling home which faces disintegration from within and existential dangers from without.
Holiday
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.Come on my little semi-literate Jamaati friends,don't you have anything better to do in your pathetic lives other than whining round the clock about the "big,bad Indian wolf".Please pay heed to my advice and start doing something meaningful instead of playing this pathetic "Blame India for everyting" game of yours
!!
