July Massacre: Hasina regime in coma

Even after the July Massacre in Bangladesh, the Hasina Regime remains resolutely unrepentant. Following a fascist playbook, Hasina has divided the nation into pro-liberation and anti-liberation factions (read pro-Hasina and anti-Hasina). She herself was not a freedom fighter, but she has leveraged her father’s leadership in the liberation movement to claim a proprietary quota in Bangladesh’s identity.

She believes that the liberation war of 1971 and her father’s assassination in 1975 give her political party, the Awami League, sole ownership of the country, allowing them to rule as they see fit. In her eyes, the citizens of Bangladesh are mere subjects who should dance to her beck and call.

As a dictator, she needs the illusion of an enemy. By using the Pakistan of 1971 as a symbolic foe, she has labeled anyone who criticizes her fascist regime as pro-Pakistan. In a democracy, there are multiple political parties but Hasina’s fascism has turned Bangladesh into a one-party regime. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is a major political force in Bangladesh, but Hasina has ostracized the BNP as untouchable along the lines of Hinduism. Awami League’s cultural sycophants have reinforced this political cast system through song and dance. Despite her husband’s role as a freedom fighter and sector commander during the 1971 liberation war, Hasina and Indian media have branded Khaleda Zia as pro-Pakistani.

Sheikh Hasina (on her father’s quota) and BNP leader Khaleda Zia (on her husband’s quota) both represent an old-school feudal political culture. They permit their loyalists to plunder and rule. However, the neighboring Indian government favors Hasina for her rhetorical stance against radical Islam. It is ironic that the radical Hindu regime of Narendra Modi seeks a Bangladesh free from radical Islam, even as he justifies his own blatant Islamophobia.

India has convinced America that if Hasina is not in power, Bangladesh will become an Islamic militant state. However, Islamic political parties in Bangladesh have never garnered more than 2 to 3 percent of the vote in any election. Meanwhile, Hindu nationalism dominates politics and elections in India, suggesting that the threat of Islamic radicals is largely a fabricated illusion created by India’s radical Hindu regime.

In Bangladesh, the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami remains unpopular due to its dubious role in the 1971 liberation war. There has always been a popular demand to ban Jamaat, but Sheikh Hasina strategically kept this option available for political leverage, like banning the party at this moment to counter severe international criticism denouncing her crimes against humanity during Red July.

In India, there is a tendency to label any government critic as a Naxalite; similarly, in Bangladesh, the term Jamaat is used to discredit opponents. Jamaat-e-Islami was a strategic ally of Sheikh Hasina in the 1996 movement for a caretaker government, while Khaleda Zia also included Jamaat as a coalition partner in her 2001-2006 government. But Hasina has successfully erased her 1996 association with Jamaat and instead painted Khaleda as aligned with the group, reflecting the out-casting tactics employed by Hasina and her allies in India.

During the July massacre, more than two hundred students were killed, thousands were injured—hundreds of whom are in critical condition—and several thousand more have been imprisoned. To deflect attention from her crimes against humanity, Sheikh Hasina banned Jamaat-e-Islami to label any dissent against her as part of a Jamaat conspiracy.

Hasina’s long-standing tactic of undermining popular movements has lost its appeal to the new generation, who are now demanding her to Step Down. People from all walks of life are rallying behind the youth who sacrificed their lives, calling for an international investigation into the July massacre orchestrated by the Hasina regime. Despite this, Hasina remains in power with the backing of the military and the staunch support of Narendra Modi. Hasina’s regime is a doormat connecting India to India’s northeastern provinces, and so the Modi administration is desperate to keep her in power.

This flawed Indian foreign policy has fostered anti-Indian sentiments amongst the youth of Bangladesh, to the extent that even in Kolkata and other parts of India, there are growing calls for Step Down Hasina. It’s a Gen-Z thing; this new generation is united in their fight against old, haggard murderers, against corruption and oppression, while championing a movement for democracy, rule of law, and equal rights in Bangladesh. The anti-discrimination student movement has exposed the brutal reality of Hasina’s dictatorship. While she may attempt to prolong her rule through denial and propaganda, her regime is essentially in a state of coma, sustained only by the support of the military and Modi.