Kaushik Basu

NEW YORK – The downfall of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina unfolded faster than almost anyone expected. In early July, students took to the streets to protest the job-quota system that reserved 30% of civil-service positions for veterans of the 1971 War of Independence and their descendants. Police were ordered to quell the unrest, and given permission to shoot if needed. By August 5, nearly 300 people had been killed, and Hasina, under serious pressure from the army, had resigned and fled the country.

The controversial job-quota system, which came under fire amid increasing economic hardship, rising youth unemployment, and soaring inflation, is widely viewed as the cause of the revolt. But this was merely the spark that lit the fuse. The deeper and more significant problem was Hasina’s growing authoritarianism, which upended Bangladesh’s political landscape and left little room for dissent.

I sensed this shift during my visit to Bangladesh last year. The people I spoke to, including many supporters of Hasina’s Awami League – the party that led the country’s independence movement under the leadership of her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman – were critical of her........

© The Korea Times