Events are leavened not just by the memory of August 15, 1975, but also coloured by fate of things to come

RONEN Sen was a young diplomat in 1974 when he was posted to Dacca (Dhaka), Bangladesh, still new after the 1971 Liberation War and still ruled by the conquering democrat-hero Mujibur Rahman. Within a year, Mujib and his family — including his youngest son Russel, barely 10 years old — were massacred in the wee hours of August 15, 1975, in their home at Dhanmondi in the heart of the capital. (I’ve visited that home, which later became a memorial, several times and the memory of the fading blood splatter on the staircase as some of Mujib’s family members sought to escape, in hindsight, is a testimony to the bloody rollercoaster of Bangladesh’s history.)

As the Modi govt contemplates a realigning South Asia, it must ask itself what it really wants its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy to look like.

The way Sen tells the story, with characteristic understatement, about how the message of Mujib’s assassination was sent to Indira Gandhi, from Dacca to Delhi that morning — all kinds of transport were employed, it seems, including a motorbike — and how it barely reached her, just as she was climbing the ramparts of the Red Fort to deliver the PM’s address to the nation. Mujib was dead. A young nation’s promise had been brutally cut short.

As he thinks back on that strange morning, Sen says, he is filled with a sense of déjà vu. What were the forces that had carried out those murders 49 years ago? And who is responsible for the revolution in Bangladesh this past week?

Advertisement

As we celebrate another Independence Day in India, the events in Bangladesh are leavened not just by the memory of 1975, but surely coloured by the fate of things to come. As a 17-member interim government has been sworn in under Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, there are reports that the BSF is stopping Bangladeshis from entering India via the land borders. Seems the BJP is in a dilemma — let the people, not long ago described by Home Minister Amit Shah as ‘termites’, in, or keep them out, like the BJP chief ministers of Assam and Tripura are demanding. Moreover, should only Bangladeshi Hindus be allowed in – remember that citizenship under the CAA is applicable only to ‘minorities’ in South Asia — or should India open its doors to all Bangladeshis, including those secular Awami Leaguers believed to be hiding near the airport in the hope they can soon make a dash and catch a plane to safety?

Some of Sen’s déjà vu need not be 49 years old. Many remember another August 15 only three years ago, in 2021, when then Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled Kabul with three close aides and suitcases full of cash — the aides have long resettled in parts of the Western world, while Ghani cools his heels in Abu Dhabi. Like in Bangladesh, India had firmly shut the entry of all Afghans into the country — they are still not allowed in.

Read More

Killing of Haniyeh, Shukr can trigger wider war in West Asia’

Advertisement

The similarity with Sheikh Hasina ends there. Five days after the former Bangladesh PM fled Dhaka and landed at the Hindon airbase, she is still awaiting permission to enter the UK. It’s likely the British are waiting for the Americans to say yes — everyone knows about the bad blood between Hasina and the Americans as well as London’s deferential ties with Washington DC — and highly likely that the latter are keeping Hasina on hold in order to send her a message.

The incredible irony is that if Hasina is allowed into London, she will likely take the place of another Bangladeshi exile who has lived there for more than 15 years and is probably wending his way back home — Tarique Rahman, also known as Tino, the son of Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Khaleda Zia. Mother Khaleda, a former Prime Minister and the wife of former martial law dictator Gen Ziaur Rahman, is more ill than well. When Tino returns to Dhaka from London, which is supposed to be fairly soon, he will be the power on or behind the throne.

The next few weeks will be interesting to watch — certainly, everyone will watch how the relationship between Chief Adviser Yunus and the Bangladesh army unfolds. Army chief Gen Waker-Uz-Zaman was supposed to visit Delhi this month — Delhi should encourage that the visit take place sooner than later. We know by now that 48 hours before Hasina fled, persuaded by her son in the US to stand down — it seems she refused to entertain even her sister Rehana’s plea to do so — army officers had resolved not to fire into the crowds of student protesters. There is this tradition of loyalty to people that the Bangladesh army abides by — thousands of whose soldiers gave their lives in the Liberation War — even if the temptation to wield power behind the throne is a strong one.

As the Modi government contemplates a realigning South Asia, it must ask itself what it really wants its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy to look like — especially when it seems likely that Pakistan’s ISI will now happily splash in the waters of the Bay of Bengal. The truth is that the Indian subcontinent is different from relationships with the US or Russia or China because India’s ties with its neighbours are deeply embedded in culture, religion, ethnicity, language — all of them seeping into each other, creating a pulsating palimpsest of cultures on your doorstep. That’s why it’s imperative to constantly talk to everyone, including those that don’t like you — or especially those that don’t like you — in order to know what, when and why they think as they do.

Equally, it is true that India supported Hasina to the hilt, in the face of severe criticism by the Americans, across two elections. But as things deteriorated, perhaps Prime Minister Modi or External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar could have called her and given her “brotherly advice”, like Pranab Mukherjee used to do. Perhaps, if they had metaphorically held Hasina’s hand and persuaded her to stand down in time, they could have averted this twisted turn of fate.

For now, as India watches pictures of the smouldering remains of Bangabandhu Mujibur Rahman’s home in Dhanmondi, where he and his family were cruelly felled, the only thought that comes to mind is that even in 1975, the murderers didn’t touch Bangabandhu’s home. What is it about Naya Bangladesh that has made them want to deface their own history today?