On Sunday (21st July), Bangladesh’s top court reduced a contentious quota system for government job applicants after days of widespread chaos and disastrous conflicts between police and demonstrators that killed hundreds of people.
Violent protests have been going on in Bangladesh by students and other groups calling for the removal of a quota that allocated 30% of government posts for relatives of veterans who participated in Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence. The government earlier removed the quota in 2018 due to widespread student protests, but in June, Bangladesh’s High Court reinstated the quotas, sparking a new round of protests.
The Supreme Court ruled on an appeal, reducing the veterans’ quota to 5% and allocating 93% of jobs based on merit. The remaining 2% will be set aside for ethnic minorities, transgender persons, and those with disabilities. The protest rallies have posed the most severe challenge to Bangladesh’s administration since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina secured a fourth term in January elections that the main opposition parties boycotted.
Due to the protests, Universities have been closed down, the internet has been turned off, and the government has instructed everyone to stay at home. With most communications still offline, it is unclear to the media whether the ruling has satisfied the protesting students. However, Anisul Haq, the law minister, praised the court’s verdict as “well thought of” verdict.
Amidst the protests, the Bangladesh government issued an official statement indicating that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its extremist ally, the Jamaat-e-Islami, would try to grab the political power unconstitutionally.
“They would take advantage of the student’s protest to enact their own agenda, i.e. an unconstitutional power grab through violence and terrorism in Bangladesh, as has been demonstrated by this particular political group amply since 2013 onward. This fear came true as demonstrated in the violence perpetrated by them in the last few days, while trying to use the non-violent and the non-political anti-quota protestors as a shield,” the government said in the statement.
Bangladesh govt issues detailed statement on the unrest. Points to the role of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its extremist ally the Jamaat-E-Islami who "would try to take advantage of the student protests to enact their own agenda" pic.twitter.com/O6q3R0suLI
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) July 22, 2024
It also added that the protestors had presented their 8-point demand to the government after which the state felt optimistic to reach to a solution. “The protest coordinators unequivocally denied any involvement of their group in the violent incidents, further distinguishing their peaceful movement from the destructive actions of other parties,” the statement added.
The government also clarified that the violent protestors had nothing to do with the anti-quota protest coordinators. “The repeated statements from the anti-quota protest leaders condemning the violence confirmed that the violence came from the vested quarter and had nothing to do with the anti-quota protests,” the official statement added.
It further mentioned that the violence had led to the massive loss of government properties like the burning of the Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) office, looting and burning of central offices of national television, attacking government health centers, post offices and passport offices, etc.
The protests turned violent last week after alleged students at Dhaka University began clashing with police. Violence continued to escalate as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets and hurled smoke grenades to scatter stone-throwing protestors. Many attacked the government offices. As per the local reports, more than 100 were killed by Sunday, 21st July due to the violence.
The main opposition in the country is the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which expressed support for the protests, promising to hold its own demonstrations after many of its followers joined the student-led protests. However, the BNP declared in a statement that its supporters were not to blame for the violence and refuted the ruling party’s charges that the protests were being used for political benefit.
The ruling Awami League and the BNP have frequently accused each other of inciting political disorder and violence, most recently ahead of the country’s national election, which was marked by a crackdown on several opposition leaders. Sheikh Hasina’s government accused the opposition parties of seeking to disrupt the election.
