Everything one would have said was impossible in Bangladesh has become possible in the last few months. When Shyam Benegal’s last film Mujib: The Making of a Nation was released in the country on 13 October 2023 amid much fanfare, no one could have imagined that barely six months later Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s statues would be pulled down across the country and 16 months later, his house, Dhanmondi 32, the most famous address in Dhaka, would be taken apart brick by brick and be reduced to rubble.
Nobody thought that when Mujib’s daughter Sheikh Hasina came back to power for a historic fourth term in office on 7 January last year, she would have to flee her country on a military helicopter barely seven months later and take refuge in India. Likewise, it would have been impossible to imagine that one of Bangladesh’s principal political parties, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), that had taken to the streets to protest against the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government when Hasina was in power, would hold rallies alongside the Awami League after the fall of Hasina.
But all of the above has come true, and that last one has been made possible by one man: the chief advisor to Bangladesh’s interim government, Muhammad Yunus.
Extraordinary times, extraordinary measures
This month, Hasina’s party will undertake a slew of political activities to target the Yunus administration. The Dhaka Tribune reported that the party has declared its intent to take to the streets to press for the resignation of the interim government and to implement hartal and blockade programmes. Party activists have started to distribute leaflets and are campaigning for their demands. There are plans to hold protest marches and rallies across the country on 10 February, a nationwide blockade has been announced for 16 February, and a dawn-to-dusk strict hartal will take place on 18 February. The Awami League has also demanded the withdrawal of murder cases and other charges against Sheikh Hasina and others at the International Crimes Tribunal, terming them “farcical trials”, the report said.
Closely mirroring the Awami League’s protest programmes, the BNP has announced a series of rallies across all 64 districts of Bangladesh, demanding “effective measures to curb rising prices of daily essentials, address the deteriorating law and order situation, and push for an electoral roadmap”.
“The BNP will hold rallies in every district, starting February 11 and concluding before Ramadan. Similar gatherings will then be organised in metropolitan and divisional headquarters,” BNP Senior Joint General Secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi has said.
That’s not all. Those who have followed Bangladesh’s tumultuous political history would know there has been no love lost between Sheikh Hasina’s family and the BNP. Tarique Rahman, BNP’s acting chairman, was convicted for the grenade attack on an anti-terrorism rally arranged by the Awami League in Dhaka’s Bangabandhu Avenue on 21 August 2004. Hasina, who was then the leader of opposition, had survived the attack, which left 24 dead and over 500 injured. In June last year, Hasina had told Parliament that 15 convicts in the grenade attack case, including Rahman, have been absconding.
Given this history of animosity, one would have expected the BNP to keep quiet, if not outrightly celebrate, the news of the demolition of Mujib’s house on 5 February. Instead, the BNP has called upon the Yunus government to take control over the country’s affairs. If not, they have warned, anarchy would spread all over.
In January, Rahman told his party’s leaders and workers not to take revenge against the Awami League, which had “repressed them over the last 16 years”.
So, what gives?
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The Yunus roadblock
In his January address to his party’s leaders and cadre, Rahman had said many Bangladeshis believe the BNP has the brightest prospect to run the country by winning the next election with the support of the people’s votes. The problem is neither the BNP nor the Awami League or any other registered political party in Bangladesh knows yet when the people of the country will get to vote again. Six months have passed since Yunus took over as the caretaker of the interim government and it seems he is in no hurry to call for elections anytime soon. Yunus had announced in December last year that the next general election might take place at the end of 2025 or in the first half of 2026, depending on political consensus and reforms.
“His government, which took over after Sheikh Hasina’s ouster on August 5, formed at least 15 reform commissions. However, six months in, the interim government finds itself navigating troubled waters, surrounded by complex socioeconomic, political, and governance challenges that threaten to overshadow its initial promises,” The Daily Star wrote.
Bangladeshi political journalist Sahidul Hasan Khokon told ThePrint that Yunus seems to be in no mood to relinquish power and this has made the BNP leaders very worried since the party leaders feel they will sweep the next round of elections if they happen soon. “But this indefinite delay has reduced the animosity between the BNP and the beleaguered Awami League as they face a common roadblock to the return of electoral democracy, namely Professor Yunus,” Hasan said.
He added that both the BNP and the Awami League are worried about the reimplementation of the “Minus Two” formula in Bangladesh politics. Like Yunus today, Bangladesh had a chief advisor in former governor of the Bangladesh Bank Fakhruddin Ahmed in 2007. Ahmed had appointed 13 advisors to form the caretaker government on 11 January 2007. During his tenure, many high-profile political leaders, most importantly BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina, were arrested as part of the government’s anti-corruption crusade.
Hasan said there is worry in both parties that such an attempt may be made again to keep not just the Awami League but also the BNP out of power in Bangladesh.
Sources in the BNP and the Awami League have told ThePrint that the animosity among ground workers in both parties has significantly come down in recent months. Political equations are fast changing in the country and nothing is certain anymore.
Bangladeshi academic and political commentator Sharin Shajahan Naomi said the coming together of the two parties is not as unlikely as it seems. “There are many families in Bangladesh that have both BNP and Awami League members. Even though they have fought each other bitterly, many student leaders of these two rival parties have gone on to be good friends,” she said.
Naomi pointed to the fact that though there were news of initial attacks on Awami League leaders and workers after the fall of the Hasina government, there were also instances where Awami League workers and supporters were saved by BNP workers from murderous crowds.
Though it is unlikely the two parties will officially join hands, there is indeed a common goal now that has softened the BNP’s stand on its erstwhile rival Awami League: to get an elected government run Bangladesh.
Deep Halder is an author and journalist. He tweets @deepscribble. Views are personal.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)
Yunus is the Devil incarnate. And he is Hunt-ing down everyone who can possibly be a threat to his dictatorship.
Hence, the operation was named Devil Hunt.