Will Yunus, Jamat erase Mujibur Rahman’s legacy? – Firstpost

Has the high-decibel political drama in Bangladesh reached its nadir? The indications of endgame are perceptible from the recent flurry of events. The exiled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s recent televised speech on the debilitating conditions in Bangladesh under Muhammad Yunus has unsettled the interim government. This speech is made on the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US to meet Donald Trump. The timing also underlines its importance. South Asia, among other things, will feature prominently in the Modi-Trump meeting.

The chaos is seemingly unending. Muhammad Yunus’ American support system has thinned significantly in the Trump era. His relevance is ebbing in the larger geopolitical scheme of things in South Asia. Bangladesh’s economy is becoming increasingly fragile. Radicalism is at an all-time high. The election is nowhere to be spotted on the horizon. Minorities, especially Hindus, live in grave danger.

Yunus’ sleek verbal drama of victimhood or rhetoric of the new age has lost its gravitas. The octogenarian’s hypocrisy and sophisticated lies have been exposed thoroughly through his companionship with and subservience to the radicals, anarchists, and undemocratic forces.

The recent arson on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s residence, 32 Dhanmondi, an iconic site and a political symbol of Bangladesh’s liberation, has unearthed the rancour and hatred of the radicals against the rich historical legacies. A place of political pilgrimage is desecrated to underline the rejection of Rahman’s idea or vision of Bangladesh’s political culture. It is a place where the idea of Bangladesh was conceived.

The early voice of freedom from West Pakistan shaped and resonated here. Nationalism was born from the warm corners of this house. The 32 Dhanmondi was a signifier of independence and a confident and defiant national ego. It symbolised sacrifice, hardship, and struggle. Given the layered historicity of the 32 Dhanmondi house, it was bulldozed to erase the bulwark of the freedom struggle. It suggests that something is seriously amiss. It manifests the action of an immature ego.

The vandalism of the statues of Bangabandhu Mujibur Rahman in the past and the recent destruction of his murals at 32 Dhanmondi explain the violent overthrow of the liberation legacy. It also aims to destroy the Awami League, its political legacy, history, and heritage. The motive is unequivocally clear. It is to ghettoise Bangladesh through fanaticism, theocracy, and medievalism. Yunus’ government does everything that Hasina is accused of doing. He has failed to bring the country to normalcy. Violence and vandalism see no end.

This proves his incompetence. Economic precarity encourages radicalism. Pakistan does its best to extend its support to keep Bangladesh boiling. Foreign investment is at an all-time low. Increasing fanaticism signifies the risks of complete collapse. If this wound is allowed to fester, it may retaliate to any cure. A turbulent neighbourhood is no good news for India. International actors will further exacerbate the problem to an extent beyond repair. The sooner this flame is doused, the better it is for India to secure a safe neighbourhood and for the Bangladeshis to restore calm. Yunus’ ineffectiveness ought to be called out.

If Mujibur Rahman’s vision is dismantled under the Yunus government, Bangladesh will be left with no trace of democracy. Without his legacy, Bangladesh has no history or past. It regresses into East Pakistan. The architect of this regression is Muhammad Yunus. Theocracy overrides democracy. Bangladesh currently suffers from Stockholm syndrome. Once an oppressor, Pakistan has now become Bangladesh’s friend.

The renewal of this relationship under Yunus explains his Faustian contract. The Awami League is perceived as a visible obstruction to this contract. The hell of repression has befallen its members. The press has been muzzled. Protest against the government is construed as sedition. Any expression of protest is tactically repressed and underreported. Punitive measures were unfolded against those who expressed a hint of protest.

Every possible means was used to make the Awami League handicapped and rudderless. An attempt is made to cripple the Awami League to the extent that it cannot fight an election. The erasure of political opposition is the aim of the interim government. It finds the Awami League a political antithesis in the future. The Hasina factor in Bangladeshi politics is strong and enduring. It may resurface any time once the ground looks promising.

Yunus has already unrolled the project of rewriting history to dwarf and destroy Mujibur Rahman’s legacy. He has been removed from the school textbooks. His legacy is called the exaggerated contents of history. Graffiti aesthetics as an index of protest or an expression of dissent and the July Revolution are expected to feature in the new history textbooks. They underscore Bangladesh’s fragile nationalism. A divided nationalism balkanises a nation.

These moves explain Jamaat-e-Islami’s preparedness to emerge as a strong political force. It perceives that the real opposition may come from the Awami League in the event of an election. The Bangladesh National Party’s arch rivalry with the Awami League gives it the credential to play second fiddle to Jamaat-e-Islami and its affiliates. The Awami League and its leader, Sheikh Hasina, are the hindrances to their plan of action and roadmap to the future.

Therefore, to make the Awami League electorally ineffective is seemingly the objective of Yunus and his collaborators. The political cloud of uncertainty continues to hover over Bangladesh. It is becoming bad to worse. The geopolitics in South Asia may take a different course in the coming days. The upcoming Modi-Trump meeting may unpack many things. However, the story of Bangladesh is not quite encouraging. Yunus is definitely not Bangladesh’s future.

Jajati K Pattnaik is an Associate Professor at the Centre for West Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Chandan K Panda is an Assistant Professor at Rajiv Gandhi University (A Central University), Itanagar. The views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.