Can we launch a hotline for the victims of July movement?

Dr Mohammad Didare Alam Muhsin :

July 2024 mass uprising will remain a unique precedent in the history of the modern world, not only in the history of this country.

For nearly one and a half decade, the fascist dictator has been tenaciously riding upon the shoulder of the nation like the monster of Sindbad thanks to the unjust and blind support of the big neighbour surrounding the country on three sides.

Lo! how this sudden irresistible movement of the fearless youngsters of the country forced the autocratic regime to accept the defeat and flee the country! The unprecedented mass awakening swept the country like a spark in a very short time and spread across the borders among Bangladeshis all over the world.

Not only that, students from neighbouring countries like India and Nepal also came down on streets to show their solidarity and support towards the freedom-seeking students and people of this country.

For sure this movement will continue to be a source of inspiration for ages for the people fighting for freedom anywhere in any region on this earth, not only in this country.

The change came at a time when the freedom-seeking people of this country were seeing darkness all around, drowned in a sea of despair. Through a series of rigged and fraudulent elections in 2014, 2018 and 2024, the toppled dictator managed to stay in the power for 15 consecutive years that created an opportunity for her to exercise partisanship at all levels across the country.

The atmosphere she created in this way led many to believe that there was no way left to remove her from power. Parallel to her Chhatra League and Jubo League goons, the police, administration and judicial department were also supporting all the arrangements to stop people’s voices.

Her constant praise and adulation became the sole meditation of the vast majority of the country’s print and electronic media – where the room for public demands and aspirations was negligible. During any crisis, the people of this country have put their trust in the army. There too, especially at the top, were placed her staunch loyalists.

In recent history, the people of this country had the poor luck of facing many military/civilian dictators.

Before independence they witnessed Ayub Khan’s decade-long military/ de facto military rule. After independence, they saw how Sheikh Mujib, a people’s leader, turned to a dictator by abolishing all parties and establishing a one-party rule of BAKSAL.

In the 80s they saw General Ershad overthrow an elected government just like a thunder without clouds and run a very powerful military/ de facto military regime for 9 years in a row.

The last thing they saw was Sheikh Hasina’s 15 years long unbearable autocratic rule from 2009 to 2024, which surpassed all previous records in the history of autocracy in this country.

In the overall analysis, you may find the regime of Sheikh Mujib from 1972 to 1975 and the misrule of Sheikh Hasina in her second term from 2009 to 2024 as the most difficult challenges faced by the people of this country.

When Sheikh Mujib dissolved all parties and established his one-party BAKSAL government, one of his closest aides, Tajuddin Ahmed, was forced to warn him that he had cut off all the avenues to systematically remove him from power.

After coming to power in the second term, Sheikh Hasina also blocked all the ways to remove her from power in a systematic way by abolishing the caretaker system for conducting elections, establishing a reign of terror through enforced disappearances and murders and making a totally partisan civilian-military bureaucracy and muscle power as the determinants of power.

However, the matter of hope was that she could not destroy people’s commitment to democracy. The country was being run in a democratic system, at least on paper. She had to stage election drama every 5 years where every time people hoped that they would be able to exercise their voting right.

Besides, they always expected that Western democratic powers like the United States, United Kingdom and the European Union would stand by their side in their fight for democracy. Unfortunately, the support they received from the West in this regard was woefully inadequate.

For whatever reasons, they have shown reluctance to apply enough pressure to end Sheikh Hasina’s autocratic regime. Since some two years before the election year of 2024, it seemed, from the overall activity of the United States including the imposition of various sanctions, that it was going to play a decisive role this time around.

However, in the end, it was seen that it gave in to the Indian pressure and silently supported Sheikh Hasina this time as well to cruise through by organising a dummy election.

All in all, the people of this country understood that they would have to decide their fate. The political parties were already kind of tired after fighting for long 10 years.

At this stage, the youth of this country jumped without caring about anything and let their chests be carelessly exposed to gunfire, the only wish they had was to free their beloved motherland from the grip of the fascist regime.

The goal has been achieved at last in return of their immense sacrifices. The change that has come and the government that has been formed afterwards are standing on their blood.

Now, we want the government and the leaders of the anti-discrimination movement to take more organized initiatives for the victims. Each case should be addressed individually according to its merits and demands.

Consideration should be made to launch a round-the-clock hotline so that, if needed, the injured people and the families of the martyrs can report their problems and the kind of assistance they need on their own.

That will also make it easy and feasible to accurately identify the needs of the injured and appropriate initiatives can be taken to provide the necessary support to the families of the martyrs.

(The writer is professor and former Chairman, Department of Pharmacy, Jahangirnagar University).