Whatever be the current state of the country after Sheikh Hasina had to leave in a hurry in August 2024 after student protests had snowballed into a revolution, it is so unjust that a symbol of the father figure of Bangladesh in the form of his residence should be destroyed and his murals and portraits defaced, even as his daughter and Prime Minister is condemned to stay away. Houses of other leaders of the Awami League and Sheikh Hasina’s kin were also demolished
Mobs continue to rule in Bangladesh months after Sheikh Hasina fled to India. It is a sad commentary on the senseless anger and violence stemming from polarised politics that the home of Hasina’s father, founder of the country who galvanised it into gaining Independence from Pakistan in 1971 and who became its first President, should be vandalised to the extent of it being razed to the ground.
Whatever be the current state of the country after Sheikh Hasina had to leave in a hurry in August 2024 after student protests had snowballed into a revolution, it is so unjust that a symbol of the father figure of Bangladesh in the form of his residence should be destroyed and his murals and portraits defaced, even as his daughter and Prime Minister is condemned to stay away. Houses of other leaders of the Awami League and Sheikh Hasina’s kin were also demolished.
The latest incidents of mob action came in the wake of an online speech that Sheikh Hasina made on Awami League’s social media handle calling for resistance to the regime of the microfinance banker Muhammad Yunus who was parachuted into Bangladesh as chief adviser by certain forces living far from Bangladesh and who fancy themselves as champions of regime changes around the world.
It is apparent that Bangladeshi forces that are supposed to maintain law and order are not functional with not even a fire engine turning up as a mob wreaked havoc with arson and bulldozers on the house in a suburb of Dhaka.
The vandalisers justified their action on the strange logic that the house was a symbol of “authoritarianism and fascism” that “Mujibism” brought, and they even called for Hasina’s execution. History will, however, aver that Mujib’s home is “a symbol of the heroic resistance of the people of Bangladesh against the forces of occupation and oppression”.
An indistinct Bangladesh regime with no legitimate authority vested by virtue of being elected by the people has been ineffective in administering the country. It has also dragged its feet on bringing back a vestige of democracy by calling for elections. However distant the country is from emerging again as a free and fair democracy, the least the regime — backed by the military which has not been averse to enjoying power — can do is maintain peace, and law and order.
