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Opinion | Sheikh Hasina’s fall in Bangladesh shows history’s cruel irony
- The ousting of the leader marks the end of a period characterised by the kind of oppression her father fought against in Bangladesh’s birth
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An unexpected and dramatic development plunged Bangladesh into turmoil on Monday as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina abruptly resigned after 15 years in power and fled to India in a military aircraft. This ignominious exit followed weeks of student-led protests over the job quota system and brutal reprisals by security forces.
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Images of jubilant protesters ransacking the prime minister’s residence testify to the intensity of the anti-Hasina sentiment. This was reminiscent of what happened in Colombo in July 2022, when then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled Sri Lanka amid similar protests and the ransacking of the presidential palace.
Bangladesh is a relatively new nation. It was known as East Pakistan before being born as an independent nation in 1971 after a war of liberation from Pakistan in which India played a major role. The unseating of Hasina has been described as the second liberation of Bangladesh.
This is deeply ironic as Hasina’s father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was the founding father of the fledgling nation and had fought against the oppressive, genocidal rule of the Pakistan army. The same charges are now being levelled against his daughter; the blood-soaked rhythms of history add to the trauma of Bangladesh and its collective memory.
Bangladesh army chief General Waker-uz-Zaman, who was appointed in June, has taken control of the troubled nation. He has assured the country that an interim government will soon be formed. The country’s parliament has been dissolved to pave the way for fresh elections which were among the key demands of the student protesters.
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