Bangladesh Imploding

With geopolitics, there is always something more to the story, as reiterated by Ezra Helsinger in CBS's Madam secretary. It seems to be the case with the current civil unrest in Bangladesh. I am basing most of my writing on this video by Prof. K. Nageshwar.

Couple of weeks ago, news broke of the student protests happening in Bangladesh over reservations. While at that time it seemed vague and I ignored it as some minor issue, which has now metastasized into a political and humanitarian crisis. The reason the protests started was because the government has reserved 56% of the employment positions for the descendants of Bangladesh freedom struggle. 

The story begins in 1971 with the Bangla freedom struggle under the leadership of the Bangladesh Awami League or Bangladesh Freedom Party (BAL for short). Now, as we know BAL won freedom from Pakistan for the Bangladeshi people and almost 30 lakh Bangladeshi's were slaughtered in this struggle. 

After independence, the then leader BAL, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (SMR) proclaimed 56% reservation in govt. positions for the freedom fighters and their descendants upto two generations. Although, only 30% was allotted for them. 10% was allotted to women. And the rest was allotted to other backward tribes and the physically challenged. Recently, a student protest broke over this which is now demanding for the resignation of the now president Sheikh Hasina (SH), the daughter of SMR. 

Political context: Ever since SH came to power she has been ruling with an iron fist over both civillians and the opposition. She mercilessly quashed the protestors which resulted in the death of over 300 students. There is a high rate of unemployment, inflation, and poverty in Bangladesh. Further, it looks like she has intimidated the opposition in the last two elections, thus becoming an autocratic ruler. Therefore, there is a high amount of socio-economic distress. 

Misinformation: This is incredible information that has gotten lost in the messaging. While the said reservations have been in vogue since Bangladeshi independence, it seems like SH withdrew them in 2018---which is what the protestors were demanding for. However, a high court (HC) reverted this decision. SH's government then appealed the matter to the Bangladesh SC, which re-reverted the HC ruling to  only entail 5% reservations, i.e., 30% to 5%. 

THEN WHAT IN THE NAME OF BENGAL TIGER ARE THESE PROTESTORS PROTESTING ABOUT? 

Prof. Nageshwar talks about three different forces: 

1. The "internal" forces who are vexed with starvations, low economy and the lack of jobs. 

2. The "political" forces who are waiting to oust SH from the government. 

3. The "external" forces like the anti-Bangladesh formation islamic terror groups. 

The professor gives the bringing down SMR's status in Dhaka as a proof for the involvement of the anarchists. Surprisingly, he makes a point about US being involved, wherein US doesn't support the democratic nations abroad but only dictatorships in the third-world. I find this hard to be true, but oh well. We have seen Iraq. 

What happened? It seems like at the advice of the military, SH has resigned to her post as the PM and has fled via a military airplane to India and is currently at the Ghaziabad air base in Delhi. Now, are the anarchist elements of the protest still looking to sow unrest? Time will tell.