Bangladesh has been in the news for all the wrong reasons again, this time over the demand for the removal of President Mohammed Shahabuddin by the students, for apparently admitting that he had not seen the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was forced to flee to India on August 5.
The Anti-discrimination Student Movement, which spearheaded the campaign that led to Hasina’s abrupt exit, even tried to storm Bangabhaban, the president’s official residence, demanding that he quit. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which was the key opposition party during Sheikh Hasina’s tenure, however, believes that removing President Shahabuddin, who actually swore in the interim administration led by Dr Mohd Yunus, would not only cause political complications and undermine the legitimacy of the new administration, it would also delay any plans for an election.
Ambassador Riva Ganguly Das, who has held several senior positions in the External Affairs Ministry including Secretary East and High Commissioner to Bangladesh, believes the whole issue is a bit strange, given that Hasina is no longer present in Bangladesh as Prime Minister. “She’s not there physically performing her duties as a Prime Minister.”
Describing it as a “grey area”, she points out that the interim government took office on the basis of the Constitution, but the Constitution does not have any provision for such a government…so they formed the government by taking an oath to preserve the Constitution..”
Then, the Constitution demands that the president has to submit his resignation to the Speaker, but there is no speaker, since she has already resigned, she notes, explaining that no political party would want to deal with the various legal, constitutional and political challenges involved.
Speaking to The Gist, Ambassador Das also expressed surprise over the mass release of convicted Islamist terrorists –including Jashimuddin Rahmani, the chief of the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), an al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist outfit –by the Yunus administration within days of being sworn in.
“Known terrorists are out on the streets. But nobody really seems to know their status, as in has their case been dropped by the prosecutors, or has the case been resolved, their conviction been legally overturned, or has the chargesheet been withdrawn….in fact, this is exactly what the students had been accusing the Sheikh Hasina government of doing,” she says.
To understand more about the various factors at play in Bangladesh now and India’s options, as well as whether the recent report by an Indian website which identified the safe house where Sheikh Hasina lives in Lutyens Delhi — and even noted that she goes for regular walks in the Lodhi Gardens –painted a target on her back for potential jihadi attacks, watch the full interview.
