With Bangladesh in turmoil, why India should exercise caution
The old order in Bangladesh has changed irreversibly and India will have to adjust to the change. A student protest against reservation morphed into a wider people’s movement against the increasingly autocratic and corruption-ridden rule of Sheikh Hasina. She has resigned and left the country and may take shelter in India. India should not deny her that. The Bangladesh Army appears to have taken charge though it has promised an interim government of “stakeholders” to pave the way for free and fair elections. Whether the protests will die down and the current unrest on the streets of Dhaka will be stemmed remains to be seen.
Sheikh Hasina’s rule was tolerable as long as the Bangladesh economy, centred on export of garments, was registering sustained growth and delivering on jobs and better living standards. However, the pandemic in 2020 and a slowing global economy, thereafter, hit the garment industry badly. A toxic mix of economic distress and the increasingly high-handed behaviour of the government and its Awami League party members turned a student protest into a full-scale anti-government people’s movement. Whatever decision Delhi takes concerning Sheikh Hasina’s possible stay in India, it must acknowledge that the people of Bangladesh have rejected an unpopular government and have the legitimate right to chart their own future. Read more
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