The revolution unfinished

The regret of a senior minister that 'nothing has changed' in Bangladesh since the July 2024 'uprising', exposes disappointment within a major section over its achievements so far. "The situation has been worse than earlier," is the narrative another group spread here and there, suggesting what they have lost and why.

Out to malign the 5 August 2024 political changeover, the losers are in effect formulating arguments to prove an antithesis -- the recent democratic transition minus Sheikh Hasina was a wrong move. Their opponents, though disappointed, harboured their desire for change, perhaps similar change that LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir does not see, two years after the end of one and a half decades' fascist rule.

The two opposite sides -- respectively supportive of and opposed to the process of unseating the Awami League regime -- confirm one and the same thing that the event of 2024 was not an ordinary political development.

Two years on, many people on earth on either side of the past political divide could not yet reconcile with what happened on 36 July (5 August) and the weeks before and how. Who could believe the once invincible ruler along with thousands of leaders, activists, oligarchs and officebearers would disappear from the scene in broad daylight, and the regime's power structure and symbols of artificial legitimacy collapse overnight!

That happened in the face of the millions' protests against the atrocities and all other misdeeds and resistance against the tyrants. It's a revolution, the revolution of the new century, a unique one that Bangladesh has presented to the world.

The innovative approach of the tech-savvy youth, to dealing with the brutal regime played the key part in taking the movement to the culmination and that too, without the leadership of a single political party and a paramount leader unlike other revolutions of the 20th century.

Different from the Arab Spring of the 21st century, the Bangladesh revolution took certain inspiration from the downfall of Sri Lanka's Mahinda Rajapaksa who was evacuated from the Presidential palace. It transcended the earlier revolutions and transformed itself into one-of-a-kind that Bangladesh's elites, including a section of conventional politicians, could not anticipate. This model of the revolution was replicated in Nepal. The Indian youth have taken some lessons from the Bangladesh episode while launching the recent 'cockroach' movement.

In Bangladesh, those who publicly express unwillingness to call it a revolution are either of a particular ideological mindset, apart from the defeated forces, or bookish creatures devoid of creative thinking. They all fail to understand why the people were ready to sacrifice their blood and lives for tearing apart the autocratic system of Hasina's Awami League, patronised by a dominant neighbour, and characterised by corruption and suppression of all public rights including voting rights.

The people's expectations from the revolutionary changes they had visualised during the final push had not been listed either in any declaration, unlike the written manifesto proclaimed by revolutionaries in earlier cases. It was drafted later, as July Charter, a political document based on consensus that outlined democratic, institutional and constitutional reforms.

Bearing political legacy and gaining energy from people's grievances against the tyrannical system of governance, the 2024 movement had political backing in taking shape.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), as the main opposition, had kept the light of struggle for democracy ignited over the years. Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami had acted as an invisible vanguard during the ultimate days of the anti-Hasina demonstrations. Eventually, the final round of the decade-long movement was spearheaded by a non-party coalition of Students Against Discrimination, earlier protesting against unjust quota system in public services and later converted into National Citizen Party (NCP).

And these parties, now in treasury and opposition benches in parliament, are the signatories to the July Charter which contains the key agenda of the revolution, if not all. So, these political actors will be tested if they drive the July agenda.

Their collective position on the July-August 2024 happenings effectively ratified the revolution recognising its relevance to attaining national progress towards democratisation of state institutions and institutionalisation of democracy, and making the constitution, electoral system, judiciary and administration compatible with public aspiration and welfare.

However, the promises of the revolution and people's, especially a whole, new generation's dreams of having a Bangladesh free from discrimination, corruption and remains of fascism are yet to be translated into reality. In 1971, the people liberated the country and in 1990, the student-mass upsurge removed autocrat Ershad from power and restored democratic order, which fumbled in two decades, thanks to Hasina's mafia rule banking on three rigged polls.

With the agenda of the July revolution awaiting implementation, there is no chance of Bangladesh going back to the likes of Hasina era. After the revolutions in France, Russia, China, and Iran, the old systems were not reverted to anywhere. American leaders described their revolution as unfinished, given the pending tasks and democratic journey of the 'new' nation.

Bangladesh's 2026 election results, not excluding referendum as well as millions' march on 5 August 2024, suggest that more than two thirds of the voters support the July agenda. Till date, the masses are yet to comprehend where the nation is headed to.

Unless a new Bangladesh is built accordingly, the unaddressed revolutionary issues will inevitably resurface in another form.

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Khawaza Main Uddin is a journalist. He can be contacted at khawaza@gmail.