With opposition forces emboldened, Bangladesh appears to be at a turning point, grappling with a shifting political landscape and growing internal discord
As a Mukti Jodha (freedom fighter – that’s what Bangladeshis call Indian Army personnel who fought the Liberation War), I’m appalled at the recent turn of events, the mayhem in Dhaka and many parts of Bangladesh following Sheikh Hasina’s virtual address to her party supporters from somewhere near Delhi which provided the pretext for the students of the protest movement and parties opposed to Awami League to set ablaze 32 Dhanmondi residence of Mujibur Rehman and a museum in his name.
Perhaps nothing ‘physical’ remains of Mujib’s legacy even as Hasina said: “History cannot be wiped out”. Mahfuz Alam, one of the student advisors to Mohammad Yunus, noted that symbols of fascism were being dismantled. Surprisingly BNP Secretary General Faqrul Aslam Alamgir protested the disorder and violence at a meeting with Yunus where he sought early elections. Later, he asked India to hand over Hasina and her accomplices to the government in Dhaka for trial.
Army Chief, Gen Waqer uz Zaman also commented on the negative effect on internal stability by adverse law and order situation but significantly noting that India is a big country and important neighbour. It is important for good relations for the security interests of both countries, he added. India has called the violence as ‘regrettable’ attracting a summoning of its acting High Commissioner in Dhaka.
India-Bangladesh relations will get a lot worse before they get any better despite Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s visit to Dhaka in December and Foreign Minister S Jaishankar’s meeting with Touheed Hasan, acting advisor to the interim government in Bangladesh last Sunday in Muscat. One thing is becoming clear: a new Bangladesh is evolving and this is the real one, unlike the new Nepal expected after the 10-year civil war. Last August in one week the face of Bangladesh changed and is changing by the day by design.
The Americans were being blamed for regime change. The US and India were never on the same page in the last many decades here. In an interview with The Hindustan Times, Lisa Curtis, a Trump 1.0 White House NSC chief of South and Central Asia, has dismissed any US role in Hasina’s ouster. Last week, PM Modi raised concerns about Bangladesh with President Trump who denied any role of US Deep State in it. But for India, there are lessons from events in Bangladesh that the establishment is silent about because there was non-partisan support for Hasina and Awami League with the country’s liberation linked to Mujib and India.
After Mujib’s assassination in 1975, Hasina and her sister Rehana were provided refuge in India; history repeated itself in 2024. I was invited in November 2023, two months before the elections, to speak at the Liberation War Museum on the role of Chancellor Willy Brandt of Germany.
One of the trustees of the museum, Dr Mofidul Hoque, took me around the museum. There was a section completely devoted to the political movement against Rawalpindi led by Sheikh Mujib called Story of Liberation Under a Genocide. The accent of the display depicted the liberation war fought by Bengali Mukti Jodhas with India in a support role. But it did have a gallery on the training of Mukti Bahini by the Indian Army. During my five-day visit, the BNP was out of the streets every other day coupling with garment factory workers and their unions demanding higher wages. A virtual war was being fought on the streets with the dominant Awami League counter-protestors unleashed.
Most people I spoke to said if there was a free and fair election BNP would win. This was one view I received even from our High Commission. While people were angry with India for supporting Hasina, the media was scared of the government. Despite the negative vibes of the Hasina regime, Delhi was reluctant to abandon her. I wonder what inputs Indian intelligence agencies had provided. They likely failed to read the mood of the people which led to a students’ revolt.
One other truth and for me, the most significant was that the goodwill dividend of India’s support to the liberation war and attainment of nationhood has dissipated – to put it crudely, the use-by date was long over. The 1970 military vintage soldier had disappeared nearly two decades ago from all three armed forces – India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.In any case, very few units from East Pakistan Rifles and still fewer Bengalis in the Pakistan Army were deployed in East Pakistan.
The war effort was predominantly India with Mukti Bahini in support; that was the ground reality. As far as the Liberation War is concerned, Bangladesh had changed the narrative (history) as was evident from the Liberation War Museum. For India though, it was an iconic, once-in-a-thousand-year victory (over arch-enemy Pakistan) which became a landmark event for the Indian political and military leadership to celebrate and commemorate.
Yunus’s Law Advisor, Arif Nazrul has said: “India was only an ally in the 1971 war victory, nothing more”, a sentiment that was endorsed by the office of the interim government. Hasina’s second spell of refuge in India is a matter of immense resentment in Bangladesh, but Delhi will not let down a friend and ally. India has opened its doors to several leaders fleeing from Nepal, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Maldives. But for housing Hasina, there will be costs for India.
(The writer, a retired Major General, was Commander, IPKF South, Sri Lanka, and founder member of the Defence Planning Staff, currently the Integrated Defence Staff. The views expressed are personal)
