Rise and fall of Sheikh Hasina

On a sunny afternoon in 1981 Sheikh Hasina landed in Dhaka from Delhi, ending her exile for six years since her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was killed in a bloody coup in 1975.

Thousands of Awami League supporters welcomed her with the hope that Hasina, then only 33 years old, would rejuvenate the party. The day was 17 May. Bangladesh was then run by the BNP headed by president Ziaur Rahman.

Awami League was then torn in internal power conflicts. Upon her return she embarked on reorganising the party.

Just two weeks after her return, Zia was killed in another failed coup. Soon after presidential election was held with Dr Kamal Hossain as Awami League candidate. But he lost to the BNP candidate justice Abdus Sattar.

But the government did not last long as another general HM Ershad took over power, staging a coup.

Hasina’s struggle began against the dictator to regain democracy. She and her BNP counterpart Khaleda Zia along with Jamaat-e-Islami waged a tenuous simultaneous movement against Ershad.

When Ershad called a general election in 1986, all the three parties decided not to participate. But suddenly Hasina changed her mind and joined the election that was hugely rigged only to fail miserably with only 73 seats out of 300. Ershad’s Jatiya Party won the election.

A wisened Hasina again joined hands with the BNP and Jamaat to wage the collective movement to oust Ershad.

It took another four years for the joint movement to make the fall of Ershad on 6 December 1990 and an election was called in February 1991 under a makeshift government led by then chief justice Shahabuddin Ahmed, a well-respected judge.

Hasina brimming with the dream that she would come to power waged a huge campaign only to a humiliating defeat. Her Awami League bagged only 88 seats. A shocked Hasina called the election “rigged” although it was widely regarded as one of the few free and fair elections in the history of Bangladesh.

When the time came for electing the president, Hasina picked justice Badrul Haider Chowdhury who went to Jamaat’s then amir Golam Azam to seek his blessing to obtain Jamaat lawmakers’ votes. But that also did not succeed and BNP candidate Abdur Rahman Biswas became the president.

Within three years, Hasina felt that if the next parliamentary election is held under the BNP government, her party might not win. So, she started backing a new Jamaat formula for elections to be held under a neutral caretaker government.

She formed a liaison committee with Jatiya Party and Jamaat and waged a movement that included often violent hartals. Awami League, Jatiya Party and Jamaat at one stage of the movement resigned from parliament.

But the provision of a caretaker government needed amendment to the constitution and the BNP had no two-thirds majority to amend the constitution. So, at one stage of the movement, BNP held an election in February 1996 that was boycotted by Awami League, Jamaat and Jatiya Party.

So, the BNP won most seats and made the amendment to constitution to make the provision for elections to be held under a non-partisan caretaker government, a unique system that ensured free and fair elections. As the chief of the caretaker government, the first choice would be the immediate past chief justice.

Khaleda Zia resigned and handed power to this caretaker government. Another election was held in June 1996.

Hasina this time won the election and became prime minister. Awami League returned to power after 21 years. She picked justice Shahabuddin Ahmed again as her president. It was hugely hailed as a wise move because Shahabuddin’s integrity, honesty and outspokenness were widely regarded.

At the fag end of her first term, her government allocated the Ganabhaban, the official residence of the prime minister, to her at a token price of Tk1 under a law made by her government. That triggered widespread criticism and then she left the Ganabhaban before the election.

In the next election held under a caretaker government, Hasina suffered a humiliating defeat to BNP with only 62 seats. She again rejected the election result, alleging huge rigging, refused to take oath initially. She started humiliating her own appointed president Shahabuddin in crudest ways because she felt the justice had not helped her enough in the election.

Hasina and her lawmakers even refused to join parliament. But as a provision of the constitution arose that a continuous absence in parliament for 90 sittings will automatically annul parliamentary membership, she returned to parliament.

When the time neared for the next election, the BNP changed the amendment to increase the age of retirement of chief justice so that justice KM Hasan, a person of BNP’s choice would head the next caretaker government.

AL vehemently rejected Hasan as the future head of caretaker government and drummed up a huge movement that became so violent at one stage that an emergency was declared in January 2007 and an army-backed caretaker government was formed.

Hasina was forced to leave country to London. But Khaleda refused to leave. So, Hasina felt she was losing out to her archrival politically, she wanted to come back home which the caretaker government initially resisted.

But later she was allowed to come back and imprisoned. Khaleda was also sent to jail.

There were many efforts to eliminate the two leaders known to the Western media as the battling begums from politics. But all efforts failed and Hasina and Khaleda were released to participate in another election 2008.

This time Hasina had a landslide victory and emerged with a promise of change. Her party’s election manifesto – charter for change – promised to end confrontational politics, fight corruption, build a digital Bangladesh, strengthen institutions such as the judiciary, parliament and so on.

But as days went by, she failed to deliver on her promises and started taking an authoritarian turn. She started showing growing intolerance to opposing views, press came under her shrill attack, she vowed to destroy the BNP.

Then she made the most dreadful act. She amended the constitution and abolished the caretaker system that buried the scope for free and fair elections.

The rest is history. She held the next election in 2014 that was boycotted by the BNP-led opposition parties because they said the chance for a free and fair election was not possible under a political government. As the BNP tried to resist the election violence spread with many deaths.

But Hasina came up with a new tactic to be elected unopposed. Her party members got elected unopposed in 153 seats. She did not care about the legitimacy of such a parliament.

In her another step towards authoritarianism, she amended the constitution and empowered the parliament to impeach supreme court judges on ground of incapacity or misconduct, a power always vested with the Supreme Judicial Council.

But this amendment was scrapped by the Supreme Court, which angered Hasina that resulted in the resignation of the chief justice who was forced to leave the country.

When the time came for the next election in 2018, BNP refused to participate under her government. She promised to hold a free fair election that made the BNP to participate. By this time BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia was put in jail in a corruption case.

But votes were stuffed in ballot boxes the night before in the most blatant example of rigging an election. The administration by that time was so politicised that it wholeheartedly participated in the rigging. The election was famously named as Rater Vote or midnight election.

Again in power, she became even more reckless. She passed draconian laws like the Digital Security Act and Cyber Security Act to gag dissenting voices. Press was muted and intimidated using laws and her intelligence forces. A rein of fear was established that gagged all criticism. Freedom of speech and press was destroyed.

By this time the institutions that she once vowed to strengthen were destroyed one by one. The Election Commission lost its credibility, the Anti-Corruption Commission became toothless. The Human Rights Commission went into slumber. Enforced disappearance and extra-judicial killings were rampant. Her government took few measures, ignoring local and international rights bodies’ repeated call. Parliament became so loyal to her that it never made her cabinet accountable. Its sole task was to praise her.

She then promoted a cult culture. Like in North Korea, offices and educational institutions were forced to set up Bangabandhu Corners to promote the memory of her slain father. The year 2020 was declared Mujib Year.

She was now completely encircled by sycophants and the corrupt who only showered her with praises and a distorted view of the country.

She started priding herself with the myth of development. The natural progression of building infrastructures became her sole credit. Projects were done at extravagant cost because of corruption.

The financial sector was plagued by rampant corruptions. Money was taken out of banks and never returned.

The crony capitalism that developed bagged all projects. Hasina turned a blind eye to these and even patronised them.

The economy was so mismanaged that high inflation plagued the country. Inequality widened.

Against this backdrop, she held another election in 2024 under tremendous international pressure to make it free, fair and inclusive.

But she mocked the world, scoffed them off.

Then she staged an election boycotted by the BNP and other opposition parties. She came up with a new tactic, fielding her own party men as independent candidates to make the election look competitive.

Following this farce election, the rest became history.a