During a press conference on 14 July, Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister of Bangladesh, was asked about the peaceful protests that had been on across the country’s university campuses for a week, with students demanding an end to a quota system for government jobs. “Why are they opposing the freedom fighter quota?” she asked in response. “Do they want the descendants of the Razakars to get all the facilities?” Hasina was trying to discredit the protesters, but instead her use of the term “razakars” offended students and further fuelled their protests. Razakar is a pejorative used for people who collaborated with the Pakistan army during Bangladesh’s war for liberation in 1971. In reaction to the remark, students carried out marches late the same night, using “razakar” satirically in their slogans and accusing Hasina of labelling them as such for simply demanding their rights. Ministers and leaders of the ruling Awami League made remarks distorting the protesters’ slogans,...

  Hearing the ruling party’s general secretary say that the BNP's October 28 rally in the capital would face a similar reaction as did the one on December 10, we can now gauge what the intention of the government is. Perhaps, many of us have already started adjusting our diaries, out of fear of violence or to avoid harassment in the name of heightened security. The possibility of another unannounced shutdown ( better to be called a hartal enforced by the supporters of the ruling party) may also encourage them to leave Dhaka simply to avoid any additional sufferings.  The warning given to the opposition BNP by Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader for its expressed intent is undoubtedly worrying and deplorable. On the other hand, it is also an admission that the government did crack down on the opposition on December 7, 2022, for which they had so far put the blame on the BNP’s alleged subversive activities.  Many questions still remain unanswered as to why the gov...

Since mid-August, hardly a day has passed when newspapers have not published a photograph or  story depicting attacks by the members of the ruling Awami League on the members of its arch rival, the BNP. These attacks have intensified following quite a few ministers’ assertion that their party would not leave the streets for the opposition to occupy. It follows BNP’s serial agitation programmes across Bangladesh protesting price hikes, the ongoing energy crisis and alleged corruption. The statements by ministers were clearly taken by the ruling party members as a signal for resisting any attempts by the opposition parties to organise protests against the government. Though the BNP is the prime target of such denial of public space, parties like the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) and Gono Odhikar Parishad, too, have not been spared.    With exceptions, particularly if attacked by police, most of the recent reports suggest that the BNP has made no serious attempts ...

Over the last few weeks, newspapers have been publishing two contrasting pictures. One shows the activists of the ruling Awami League carrying locally-made arms in a display of muscle power and dominance in the political sphere, and the other is of angry BNP supporters holding protests in larger numbers. In never ending confrontational politics such contrasting images are not unusual, but the difference in policing those public gatherings is quite shocking.  Though police are supposed to be neutral and sincere in maintaining peace and order, their actions and inactions could not be more partisan. Reports suggest that, over the fortnight, there were clashes in more than 70 places across Bangladesh. In most cases, armed supporters of the ruling party attacked BNP activists where police remained mere spectators, but in other incidents, they too became involved in violence - often with brutal and excessive force. The worst, however, is the shocking revelation that a member of the Detec...

The anti-government protests currently sweeping through South and Southeast Asia appear to have gained extraordinary strength and resilience. Among the three ongoing mass protests in this region, the largest and most powerful is the farmers' agitation in India, which has already passed ten weeks. These farmers are demanding the repeal of the government's new farm laws which aim to promote free market policies. In Thailand, anti-government protests that began a year ago resumed after a long pause due to the global pandemic. And the latest protest to attract global attention is in Myanmar where its powerful military, which seized power on February 1, faces a huge popular resistance, the kind of which has not been seen in many decades. These protests have some distinctive elements. While netizens are using hashtags and memes on the cyberspace, on the street we have witnessed Tractor March, three-finger salute, banging of pots and pans and usage of symbolic colours, etc. In India, ...