There has been widespread rejoicing, jubilation, merrymaking, exuberance, and glee in Bangladesh over the downfall of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and her fleeing the country. Students, in particular, are hailing it as a great victory, and Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus has called it “a second liberation.”
I too am glad that the autocratic Sheikh Hasina has gone, but I am constrained to say that all this celebration, jollification, festivity, frolic and hoopla at her departure will be short-lived, and then dark clouds will descend over Bangladesh. Consider the facts.
Soon after Sheikh Hasina's resignation, the Bangladesh army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman announced that an interim government will be formed. This itself shows that it will be the army which will call the shots now in Bangladesh
It has been announced that an interim government headed by the 83-year-old Muhammad Yunus has been formed by the Bangladesh President.
To my mind, this government will be like the government of Pakistan, a mere figurehead, with real power being with the army. After all, as the adage goes, power grows out of the barrel of a gun. So the real ruler of Bangladesh will be Gen Waker-Uz-Zaman, not Muhammad Yunus, just as when the Consulate was formed in France in 1799 the real power was with Gen Napoleon Bonaparte, while the other consuls were just figureheads.
But what will this interim government do? There is massive poverty and unemployment in Bangladesh. In fact the agitation and protests of students which led to Sheikh Hasina's ouster was due to widespread unemployment in Bangladesh.
Can the new interim government solve the problem of unemployment ? I believe it cannot. Nor can it solve the problems of poverty, malnutrition, price rise, lack of proper healthcare and good education, etc, though from time to time it will dish out false statistics painting a glowing and rosy picture about the 'great progress' made in these fields.
As Mark Twain said, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Ultimately, when all other methods of deceiving and befooling the public fail, the government will fall back and take recourse to the time tested method of blaming the minorities for all that ails the country, and incite and organise attacks against, as in Kristallnacht in 1938. In other words, the Hindus in Bangladesh will become like the Jews in Nazi Germany, and like the Ahmadis, Hindus, Christians and Sikhs in Pakistan.
Justice Markandey Katju retired from the Supreme Court in 2011.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of THE WEEK.
