With over 130 protesters dead, the anti-reservation agitation in Bangladesh shook the nation and raised questions about the stability of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government. The entire nation has been brought under curfew regulations and shoot-at-sight orders are in place against those who attempt to disturb peace or indulge in violence in the streets. It is in the fitness of things that the Supreme Court, on Sunday, “watered down” the reservation for children of the 1971 Liberation movement veterans by limiting it to just five percent and keeping 93 percent of government job recruitments in merit-based open category – while two per cent for some specific groups. It was a high court verdict last month, reinstating 30 per cent quota for the kin of war veterans that led to eruption of the unrest in Bangladesh with students in the vanguard of the protests. To be fair, the Sheikh Hasina government had taken a realistic view of the situation and did not back the high court verdict, though her party’s followers would have stood to majorly benefit from the reservations.
India is specially concerned over the sudden eruption of unrest in Bangladesh, where Hasina has been able to hector the nation in impressive ways for the past several years and winning parliament polls repeatedly. Her close association with India was based on historic foundations of mutual trust between the two nations after the liberation of what was East Pakistan in 1971 and formation of Bangladesh – a nation of 17 crore people; the eighth largest population — under the leadership of her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. While India’s military support helped in the Liberation and subsequent formation of Bangladesh as an independent nation, Pakistan has not been able to stomach this. The Pakistan military, through its ISI military intelligence, has been making efforts to let down Hasina even as her rival, Begum Khaleda Zia remains unpopular. The present upsurge in the name of reservations too will obviously have the anti-Hasina, anti-India forces fuelling it from behind. India has evacuated its students from Bangladesh in recent days and put its nationals there on alert. The intervention of the Bangladesh Supreme Court should help end the protests. But, the sudden eruption of unrest in Bangladesh points to serious problems within. So far, Hasina has been able to handle her adversaries in effective ways. She has also been able to control attempts to spread Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism there, through hidden Pakistani hands. The people’s support to Hasina thwarted such devious attempts in the past.
