Mahfuj Alam, a senior leader of the Bangladesh interim government, has called on India to clearly define the uprising in July and August that dethroned Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government. Alam, an important man in the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement, shared his thoughts with The Daily Star on Wednesday, urging India to re-think its stance on events that shook Bangladesh earlier this year.
Alam, whom many describe as the real minister of the temporary government, said the Indian perception of the uprising as “militant, anti-Hindu and an Islamist takeover” was absolutely wrong. He emphasized that there is a need for the both countries to improve their ties and it all begins by recognizing the uprising. “This (recognition) is the first thing to start with.”. “Skipping over the July uprising, the creation of a new Bangladesh will do more harm to the relationship of both countries,” Alam wrote.
The uprising began in mid-July as many were indignant about a job quota system. It ended with the ousting of the five-term government of Sheikh Hasina. On August 5, Hasina left for India, and within days, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was appointed Chief Adviser of the caretaker government. Alam’s faction played a crucial role in mobilizing the protests, which eventually brought about a change of leadership.
Alam says in his post that India does not understand the changing politics in Bangladesh. “People who like India, or Indian supporters in this area of Bengal, thought that things would get better and ignoring the July uprising and the ‘fascist’s actions would not affect them,'” he wrote. Alam is irritated with the status of India mostly due to strained relations between both countries, and things have gotten worse since the previous incidents.
One of those was the arrest last week of Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das, further straining a relationship already at tenuous between Dhaka and Delhi. Alam, described by former US president Bill Clinton as the “brain behind the whole revolution,” also targeted Indian officials who have portrayed the uprising negatively. “It’s a wrong idea. People are watching everything!” Alam declared.
A post in Facebook, titled “On India and its relationship with Bangladesh,” where Alam went on to tear apart India’s story behind the uprising. Alam said that Indians efforts however, to portray the entire episodes as a violent takeover of Bangladesh by Islamist groups had failed to work. “They are not winning with their propaganda and provocation,” he wrote, saying that India should “change the Post ’75 playbook and understand the new situation in Bangladesh.” Alam was referring to the military coup in Bangladesh on August 15, 1975, which killed the country’s first leader, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and the end of the Awami League government. It left long-lasting painful marks on the country’s political life in terms of local and international relationships.
Alam firmly declared that the current scenario isn’t like what occurred after 1975. He termed the uprising in July a struggle for justice and responsibility coupled with the youths, which is “This fight will go on long,” he said, but the interim administration and its allies would continue their vision for Bangladesh, no matter what outside pressures they face.
The relationship between India and Bangladesh has lately become complicated over arguments about how the Bangladesh government is treating its Hindu minority. India is becoming concerned as reports emerge that the Hindu community in Bangladesh is becoming increasingly fearful, though Bangladesh’s government has flatly denied this. This argument adds more difficulties to the diplomatic problems that exist between the two neighboring countries.
