{"id":1482058,"date":"2024-08-07T02:10:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-07T06:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1482058"},"modified":"2024-08-07T02:10:00","modified_gmt":"2024-08-07T06:10:00","slug":"the-post-coup-political-violence-in-bangladesh-bodes-ill-for-its-future-direction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/the-post-coup-political-violence-in-bangladesh-bodes-ill-for-its-future-direction\/1482058\/","title":{"rendered":"The Post-Coup Political Violence In Bangladesh Bodes Ill For Its Future Direction"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Post-Coup Political Violence In Bangladesh Bodes Ill For Its Future Direction<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Andrew Korybko via substack,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The resignation of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday and her government\u2019s replacement with a military-led interim administration was followed by a spree of political violence. The parliament was\u00a0taken over<\/a>, Hasina\u2019s palace was\u00a0stormed<\/a>, some of the former ruling party\u2019s offices and the homes of its members were\u00a0looted<\/a>, and minority Hindus were\u00a0attacked<\/a>. Despite being regrettable, retributive political violence and the targeting of minorities are predictable in \u201crevolutionary\u201d situations.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

What few could have foreseen though was that symbols of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who\u2019s known as \u201cBangabandhu\u201d and is revered as the Father of the Nation, were also attacked. This included vandalism against his\u00a0statues and murals<\/a>\u00a0as well as the\u00a0burning of his memorial museum<\/a>\u00a0in the capital, which used to be his home and\u00a0from where<\/a>\u00a0he declared Bangladesh\u2019s independence. \u00a0Even though he was Hasina\u2019s father, he\u2019s not guilty of the crimes that the so-called \u201cpeaceful pro-democracy protesters\u201d accuse her of.<\/p>\n

Some hated him at the time for his secularism as well as his non-Western alignment, thus explaining his assassination in 1975 and the military coup that followed, but much of that anger has passed since most of the population wasn\u2019t even born by then and therefore has no personal memory of him. Regardless of whatever any Bangladeshi\u2019s views might be about his policies, Bangabandhu is still the Father of the Nation, and targeting his symbols during the latest unrest bodes ill for\u00a0Bangladesh\u2019s future direction<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Only religious and political extremists would attack his symbols, which discredits the participants\u2019 claims that they\u2019re \u201cpeaceful pro-democracy protesters\u201d and lends credence to Hasina\u2019s that they\u2019re actually radical anti-state forces. What happened bears all the hallmarks of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and their allies. They\u2019ve been accused of cavorting with religious extremists and being political radicals, the claims of which aren\u2019t unfounded.<\/p>\n

The party\u2019s founder Ziaur Rahman implemented Islamist policies upon coming to power two years after Bangabandhu\u2019s assassination and then pivoted towards the West (including its then-Arab and -Chinese partners at the time). <\/strong>The rivalry between the BNP and Bangabandhu\u2019s Awami League (AL) has remained a constant since then, as has the threat posed by the\u00a0legally contentious Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) movement<\/a>, which is comprised of Pakistani loyalists who later allied with the BNP due to its Islamist policies.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, attacking Bangabandhu\u2019s symbols in such a high-profile way at this crucial moment in national history sends the message that political violence will continue, with none of the AL\u2019s supporters being safe. Unless the military can restore order, and it\u2019s too early to tell even though everything appears to be moving in that direction, then the BNP-JEI might go on a killing spree against the AL. A huge exodus to India could then follow, which risks destabilizing already demographically tense border regions.<\/p>\n

Even if that dark scenario doesn\u2019t materialize, it\u2019s clear that the BNP\u2019s JEI foot soldiers won\u2019t be pleased until their country erases the AL\u2019s legacy of secularism and alignment with India.<\/strong> After all, that\u2019s precisely what Bangabandhu represents, so targeting his symbols conveys their hatred of those policies and implies that some level of unrest might continue so long as they remain in force. Bangladesh has the sovereign right to promulgate whatever policies it wants, but this mustn\u2019t be done under pressure.<\/p>\n

It’s too early to predict whether the BNP-JEI will get all of what it wants, but the parliament in which the BNP didn\u2019t participate due to boycotting January\u2019s elections was\u00a0just dissolved<\/a>\u00a0and its jailed leader was\u00a0released<\/a>\u00a0right after, so it\u2019s likely poised to play a role in the interim administration before new elections. In that event, the BNP and its JEI foot soldiers would stand a much greater chance of pressuring the authorities into distancing Bangladesh from India in some way, which could worsen regional tensions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nTue, 08\/06\/2024 – 22:10<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/post-coup-political-violence-bangladesh-bodes-ill-its-future-direction<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Post-Coup Political Violence In Bangladesh Bodes Ill For Its Future Direction Authored by Andrew Korybko via substack, The resignation of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1482059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1482058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1482058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1482059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1482058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1482058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1482058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}