THE authoritarian government of the Awami League has been overthrown by the democratically oriented student and mass movement and the deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina has fled the country in half an hour after her resignation. Earlier, several hundred people were killed, several thousand people, including student protesters and ordinary citizens, were wounded in attacks by the Awami League鈥檚 fronts and various law enforcement units in weeks of protests centring on reforms in civil service job reservations and thousands of people, including students and people in the opposition, were arrested amidst the protests. After the resolution of the job reservation issue by the government on a court order and in the wake of fresh demands that came up but have remained unmet, the students, joined in by people from all walks of life, took to the streets overwhelmingly and, finally, in the face of the government鈥檚 decision to deal with the protesters with an iron fist, came out on the streets in their thousands defying a curfew, demanding the resignation of the government of the Awami League. And, in the situation that emerged, Hasina left amidst the people鈥檚 student uprising. The army chief General Waker-uz-Zaman in a brief speech has, meanwhile, assured people of the trial of all the killings that took place during the protests and promised that an interim government would be formed in consultation with the president to restore peace and order.
It appears that the army chief has negotiated the exit of the deposed prime minister and the formation of an interim government. Whilst we will be waiting for the composition of the interim government and representation of segments of society in it, we would want to remind the government that would be formed that so many people have laid down their lives, more than 300 hundred, not only to replace one government with another government but to bring about major democratic reforms in political and economic systems of the country. What yet remains a major task for the government is to deterrently deal with violence and to ensure the safety and security of the people, in general, and minorities, religious or ethnic, as they remain the most vulnerable to majoritarianism in such a precarious time. It is, therefore, of utmost importance for the government to protect the property, establishments and places of worship of the minorities and head off any repression on them. Besides, what remains the prime task for the new government is to conduct a credible investigation of corruption of all sorts, financial irregularities, illicit capital flow that has drained the economy, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killing, violation of rights and all such ills that took place during the consecutive tenures of the government of the Awami League since its assumption of office in 2009 and publish a white paper on all this for all citizens to know.
The interim government must, therefore, take early steps to do all this and make the unseating of the Awami League government meaningful on a path towards the democratic aspirations of the people.