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The quota for freedom fighters at the centre of the Bangladesh protests
People participate in a protest march against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government to demand justice for the victims killed in the recent countrywide deadly clashes, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP
As protests in Bangladesh intensify and the Prime Minister flees the country, we take a look at the quota which sparked the now widespread conflagration.
Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has resigned and fled Dhaka, as protests in the capital escalate. What started as a student protest over quotas accorded to freedom fighters in government jobs has turned into a protest against Hasina and the Awami League Party. Protestors have demanded the resignation of Hasina as a single-point priority, while the government alleges that the Bangladesh Nationalist party and the now banned Jamaat-e-Islami is behind the agitation.
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The mass uprising is creating ripples of unrest across the nation, and has intesified after a particularly violent weekend which saw the deaths of around hundred Bangladeshis.
Protests have continued despite the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court dismissing the order of the High Court that had precipitated the crisis, and reserving 93% of the seats in government services for merit, allocating just 5% jobs for freedom fighters and their descendants. A one per cent quota each has been allocated for tribes, differentially abled people and sexual minorities.
We take a look at the now-scrapped quota, why it was instituted and why the government sought to defend it.
What is the quota being protested?
The 1971 war | The liberation of Bangladesh, 50 years ago
After the war of 1971, Bangladesh was remodelled and one of the main planks of the creation of the state was Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s promise to do justice to those who had sacrificed and endured atrocities by the Pakistani military. In 1972, immediately after returning to Dhaka, he resolved to create a quota for freedom fighters. Apart from freedom fighters, Mujib also gave a quota for the women who were tortured by Pakistani soldiers. After the assassination of Sheikh Mujib, the quota system was diluted and extended to unrepresented sections of the country. Thus Bangladesh’s varying and evolving quota system spanned freedom fighters, women, underdeveloped areas and ethnic minorities or tribes.
Why are there protests over the quota?
Over the years, the quota system at times remained underutilised as the number of freedom fighters dwindled, and therefore possibilities of abuse of the quota arose. The argument of the critics was that as long as Mukti joddhas (freedom fighters) were young and seeking jobs, it was fair to give them reservation. After the mukti joddhas passed, their children have been getting reservation in jobs. And now the grand children of the mukti joddhas are also going to benefit from the revived quota system. At times, when the families were not available, there were suspicions that the quota was extended to party operatives of Ms. Hasina’s Awami League.
Sheikh Hasina | The rebel who became the ruler
Bangladesh’s political system has been dominated by Ms. Hasina and the Awami League for a long time. There has been a growing sentiment among opposition parties and critics that the quota for freedom fighters was essentially an attempt to create a group of close supporters for the Awami League within the bureaucracy or civil service who would perpetuate the Awami League’s rule. This is one of the main reasons that prompted the students to launch the quota reform movement after the government filed an appeal with the appellate division of the court.
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The seeds of the present quota reform movement lies in the smaller anti-quota movement of 2018. On March 8, 2018, the Bangladesh High Court rejected a petition challenging the legality of the quota system in the country that had existed since the early 1970s. In this backdrop, Ms. Hasina declared that she would maintain the quota for the descendants of the veterans of the liberation war. It was broadly understood that this quota which was started by her father Sheikh Mujib was an emotional matter for her. But this declaration of support for the quota for the descendants of the liberation war triggered a major agitation by students.
Responding to the agitation, Ms. Hasina cancelled all quotas in the Bangladesh Civil service through an executive order. This was a jolt for the students who just wanted a reform of the quota system and not abolition. It was clear that if freedom fighters were not to get any quota then no one else would either. During the next two years, over several rounds of discussion, Ms. Hasina stuck to her decision to abolish all quotas and in 2020, the executive order became operational.
Why does the government feel strongly about the freedom fighters quota?
Bangladesh’s growing political personality cult around ‘Father of the Nation’
From the beginning, Ms. Hasina has fashioned her government around the agenda of Sheikh Mujib. She feels that the quota for freedom fighters and women who survived the torture camps of the Pakistan military are part of the sacred duty that she as the daughter of Sheikh Mujib has to carry forward. Her previous negotiations with the students have indicated that she suspects that by criticising freedom fighters, critics and students are allowing themselves to be used as a Trojan horse of opposition parties such as the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami.
-Based on inputs from Kallol Bhattacherjee
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