“I won’t be able to meet you”;
“I can talk over the phone since I am underground”;
“I will try to meet you somewhere safe”;
“I don’t know if I can meet you because your movements will be monitored.”
These were some of the messages The Indian Express received from Awami League leaders, including ministers of the ousted Sheikh Hasina, and activists and intelligentsia aligned with the previous government.
Over the last one week, The Indian Express was able to meet a couple of them at undisclosed locations and speak to those in hiding, fearing retribution by Opposition groups including the BNP and the Jamaat-e-Islami.
There’s a common refrain: “Hasina has abandoned the party and its people”.
“Apa (elder sister) has abandoned us,” an Awami league leader said, referring to Hasina.
This feeling of abandonment is shared by many of them who did not foresee the events of August 5 — it was the day Hasina quit, and along with her sister Sheikh Rehana, fled the country. Her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy is in the US, while daughter Saima Wazed is in India.
Her cabinet, even her closest aides, were taken by “complete surprise” when she decided to leave, sources in the Awami League said. “We learnt about it from TV,” a leader said.
This put their lives in danger, and the angry mob — a mix of protesters, activists from political rivals BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami and opportunists — targeted the homes and businesses of Awami League leaders and the party offices. They were burnt, damaged, vandalised, looted.
“We were able to get out of our homes just in time, when the Army chief was addressing the nation around 3 pm and people were glued to TV screens,” one of the Awami League leaders said. “My family and I would have been lynched and burnt alive had we been caught,” another leader, who was a minister, said.
During the 16-and-a-half years of Awami League rule, Opposition leaders had been targeted by the Hasina government which jailed them, beat them up, intimidated and harassed them. Suddenly, the shoe was on the other foot.
Looking back at the developments, some of them expressed regret at the turn of events, especially the firing at the students and protesters in July, and then on August 3-4 when people came out on the streets. The protesters defied curfew orders on the fateful August 5, the day the government collapsed.
“She stopped listening to us,” one of the leaders said as he blamed the inner circle of Awami League, the coterie — one of them called it “the Gang of Four” — which he said had cut her off from the ground reality.
The leader named Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, investment advisor Salman Rahman, Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader and the then Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan.
“This Gang of Four led to her downfall. She had blind faith in these people, and lost the political instinct that she had in the past,” he said.
The mistake of not bringing the BNP on board for the elections in January this year is being described as Hasina’s “major mistake”.
Sources said that some leaders of the Awami League were put in touch with Tarique Rahman in London through intermediaries — he is the son of Hasina’s bete noire, BNP leader and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.
“There was a proposal of a backchannel that we thought of establishing with Tarique in January 2023, a year before the elections in Bangladesh in January 2024… But Hasina did not give a green light to the proposal,” a source said.
According to an Awami League leader, her refusal to engage with the BNP chief’s son was a “blunder” because getting BNP ready for elections — under a caretaker government — would have quietened the anger and grievances on the ground.
“We could sense the anger among the people due to corruption, chandabaaji (extortion), police atrocities… and getting BNP on board for the elections would have taken that steam off. We could have still won and kept the party in power,” the leader said.
Leaders and activists felt that Hasina, especially after winning the January 2024 elections, became much more stubborn and would not pay heed to any advice. “She became overconfident after the fourth consecutive win, and failed to see the scale of anger when the quota reform protests broke out,” the leader said.
Despite appeals from some of the leaders, who tactfully asked her to meet the student protesters early July, she refused, sources said. The last nail in the coffin was when the Detective Branch picked up the student leaders in July and released them after intimidating them and extracting a commitment to withdraw the agitation.
The tactic backfired, and the students made it public how they had been forcibly asked to withdraw the agitation.
This triggered a chain of events, leading to her flight from the country.
Fearing for their lives, many Awami League leaders, activists and intellectuals took refuge in Army cantonments across the country.
The Bangladesh Army, in a statement over the weekend, said it had provided shelter to 626 people from different walks of life, including 24 political leaders. Besides political leaders from the Awami League, it said that they also gave refuge to 5 judges, 19 civil administration officials, 28 police officers, 487 policemen of different positions, 12 people of different professions including officials of different public universities, and 51 families (wives and children) in different Army cantonments spread across the country.
Ministers including Investment Advisor Salman F Rahman, Law Minister Anisul Haque were caught trying to flee the country and Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud was prevented from flying out.
With Hasina gone, the senior leadership underground and some under arrest, the 50-year-old party, which had ruled the country for 16-and-a-half years, is facing an existential crisis, leaders said.
“She (Hasina) should nominate people on the ground, some younger Awami leaders who have credibility on the ground, have a connect with the people, and are of course, loyal to the family, to rebuild the party… This is going to be a long haul,” one of the leaders said, talking about the future first steps.
Preparing for the long list of cases and charges that are now being filed against the Awami League leaders, the leader said that at least there should be a general secretary or an office-bearer who can write petitions to the government on the Awami League letterhead, if they need to ask for legal rights of the arrested leaders and workers. “Nobody has been nominated right now,” the leader said.
“We had a strong base and network of people. Many have defected as well, as is the case with some of the opportunists. And that flight of supporters will be there. But at least we should have someone or a group of people who can engage with the interim government and can participate in the elections, whenever it is held. That is the need of the hour,” the leader said, pointing to the BNP leadership of Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Abdul Moyeen Khan, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi who held the fort while Khaleda Zia was in jail and Tarique Rahman was in London.
While the public sentiment on the streets is quite anti-Hasina and Awami League, Awami League leaders feel the Hasina family and its heir apparent, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, should give minimum statements.
“People are still angry… We have to give them time. A few years in power, whether the interim government or a future government led by the BNP or Jamaat, we have the ability to bounce back. But we need to think of regrouping and reorganising ourselves in the long term,” one of the leaders said.
Source: Indian Express
BDST: 1922 HRS, AUGUST 22, 2024
MSK
