The Jamaat Islami was at the forefront of the fight to keep East Pakistan in the federation, to the extent that is cadres took up the armed struggle against the Mukti Bahini and the Awami League. The Awami League held a special distaste for the Jamaat for its opposition to the creation of Bangladesh, and the activities of the Al-Badar and Al-Shams organizations, which worked closely with the Pakistan Army, which was the only organization left to the Government of Pakistan to fight the good fight. In the end, perhaps the only friend left to the Army were these organizations.
Though Pakistan and Bangladesh went their separate ways in 1971, after 51 years apart their problems are remarkably similar. Do religious parties have the solutions? The Jamaat certainly does. However, can other parties be stopped from presenting their own solutions? As the Jamaats did not present theirs, one can’t be sure. But so long as the problems are around, they will find proponents
The Jamaat had nothing to do with the 1975 military coup against Bangabandhu Sh Mujibur Rehman, but when the Awami League returned to office Sh Hasina Wajid, the only child of Sh Mujib to survive the massacre of the family that accompanied the coup, acted, both against her father’s killers amd against those accused of war crimes in 1971. It did no harm that the war crimes accused included figures from the Jamaat Islami, which was opposed to the Awami League. So not only did the punishment of 1971 war crimes accused proceed, but the government got in some licks against the opposition.
It is worth noting that the Jamaat Islami Bangladesh and the Jamaat Islami Pakistan are separate parties, and have no formal organizational links. Their trajectory has been different,, to the extent that while the Pakistan branch has been allied with other religious parties in the MMA, and ,ore loosely with the PTI,and is now independent, the Bangladesh party is in a fairly stable relationship with the Bangladesh National Party, which is the main opposition to the League.
However, they have both zeroed in on what might be described as secular problems, to which they have not propounded religious solutions, but secular. It might be noted that neither had formulated the problem, but had adopted existing problems. It cannot be said that other parties are not agitating on the same issue.
True, the Jamaat in Pakistan is in negotiation with the government over the issue of electricity tariffs, while the Jamaat in Bangladesh so far has been accused mainly by the government of trying to turn the anti-quota protests into protests against the government. This may reflect the fact that the Jamaat and the PML(N) had once been in alliance together, but that was a long time agp.
The protests appear different, but there is a common resentment of privilege at work. One of the reactions of the government, apart from its readiness to engage in talks, was to revive the idea, with perhaps more earnestness than ever before of ending the giving of free units to all those who get them from the government, making them pay electricity bills themselves. Similarly, the Bangladesh protesters objected to the grant of a quota to a closed group. While, as in the case of Pakistan, while it is possible for someone to get onto martyrs’ children’s quota if a parent sacrificed his life, no one could fight in the 1971 War now; it has become a closed category.
The government in Pakistan engaged the Jamaar in talks, while that in Bangladesh did not. It did engage the students, but over the issue of the release of those who had been arrested. This was one of the demands of the Jamaat in Pakistan. As a matter of fact, the students called off the protest, for the Supreme Court had restricted the quotas, thus making more jobs available
However, there was no court involvement in the electricity bills, the Supreme Court having stopped intervening in matters electrical ever since its attempt to intervene in the KESC privatization failed so miserably..
However, these are issues that have not really gone away. It is not a lack of the patriotic spirit that made students all over Bangladesh jib at quotas for the descendants of freedom fighters. It was because they saw that access to government jobs was being constrained. The Bangladesh protests took place all over the country, and were desperate, because they involved so many deaths. That indicates a very tight job situation. While the quotas have been restricted, they have not been ended. Even if they were ended, it would not provide a job to every candidate.
The problem of jobs for the new entrants to the job market has been perennial, but is increasing in intensity, especially at a time when artificial intelligence is set to transform the job market. The need will be for more flexible employees, ready to learn new skills constantly. There has been nothing done i n Bangladesh to either create more jobs or make school and university curricula more relevant to the job market of the future.
There will thus probably be an employment crisis again. It may not be over quotas, though that will remain a live issue. Alsom it is not necessary that it occur again in Bangladesh. It is not as if that country alone has got to deal with the needs of a growing population. There is Pakistan as well, as all the countries in South Asia. The chances are renotem but jobs could produce an Arab Spring-like moment. The countries all face economic difficulties and burgeoning populations. It could be argued that the Arab Spring started with the protests over the self-immolation of a street vendor whose stall had been seized by locaL authorities. It might be remembered that India has already faced violent student protests in 1990, over the quota reservations of the Mandal Commission. There the issue has not been solved, and the BJP does not intend to solve it.
The future of young people is a potent issue for every young person and every parent, but old bachelors also have to [ay their [power bills. Though the present protests have been peaceful, there has been mob violence in previous years. Perhaps these protests remained peacause they were being conducted by a political party. Previous protests, carried out by mobs irritated by power outages in summer, had even burnt down distribution company offices.
The bills have balloons because they are being used as tax collection devices as well as a means of charging the consumer the capacity charges to be paid to the IPPs, whether or not any electricity is bought from them Both are the result of the IMF placing conditionalities. Bangladesh went onto a 42-month $4/2 billion IMF programme in January, That means it is only a matter of time before the IMF begins to scrutinize power tariffs. The ground has thus been laid for trouble.
Though Pakistan and Bangladesh went their separate ways in 1971, after 51 years apart their problems are remarkably similar. Do religious parties have the solutions? The Jamaat certainly does. However, can other parties be stopped from presenting their own solutions? As the Jamaats did not present theirs, one can’t be sure. But so long as the problems are around, they will find proponents.
