By Ali Hassan

The Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh is the central executive government which was constituted by the Constitution of Bangladesh and represented by the President, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Bangladesh. The legislature represented by the Jatiya Sangsad, and judiciary is represented by the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a unitary state and the central government has the authority to govern over entire nation.

The first parliamentary elections in Bangladesh were held in March 1973 under 1972 Constitution, Awami League got a massive majority and Sheikh Mujeeb ur Rehhman took oath as the head of the state who focused on relief, rehabilitation, and reconstruction of the economy and society. Mujib ur Rehman remained state centric and implemented his own policies based on the principles of Islam and did not accept any external unfair aid to save his government which could raise the question about the sovereignty and freedom of the state and people of the state. Likewise BNP’s party leaders when came into power continued to follow the policies of Bangbandu which were in favour of Bangladesh and the people of Bangladesh.

The center-right BNP won a plurality of seats and formed a government with support from the Islamic fundamentalist party Jamaat-I-Islami, with Khaleda Zia, widow of Ziaur Rahman, obtaining the post of Prime Minister. Begum Khaleda also encouraged the Islamist forces to grow. The BNP had made its political preference clear when it formed the government in 2001 with pro-Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami as its coalition partner. Begum Khaleda Zia worked for the nation of Bangladesh despite caring for her government. She brought educational, agricultural and different economic reforms in the state. During her tenure of the government she never compromised on the sovereignty of the state and the people of Bangladesh. She remained very straightforward to the external entities such as India and never allowed any state to interfere more than its need.

But during the regime of Sheikh Hasina, the current Prime Minister, Bangladesh faced different sort of policies turn over and reforms to save the government but not Bangladesh. Moreover,  in recent years, Bangladesh has seen rising anti-India sentiments among its citizens due to the Indian government's perceived anti-Muslim and anti-Bangladeshi activities like India's interference in Bangladeshi politics, killings of Bangladeshis by Indian BSF, Citizenship Amendment Act, rise of Hindutva in India as well as India's reluctance in solving the water disputes in common rivers with Bangladesh. In 2019, several Bangladeshi ministers canceled their scheduled state visits to India as a response to India's Citizenship Amendment Bill. In 2021, massive protests in Bangladesh against the state visit by Indian PM Narendra Modi to the country led to the death of at least 14 people.

Furthermore, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina subsequently signaled support for the statue’s removal from the Supreme Court premises. Despite the outcry from secular groups, the authorities quietly relocated the statue to the annex building of the Supreme Court, away from the public eye. The ruling Awami League – an in-principle secular political party – is not new to the religious groups’ threats of escalating protests. In hindsight, this may look like a minor political compromise for a government in a Muslim-majority state. However, three years on, agitations over another sculpture has turned out to be Awami League’s déjà vu moment. For Hasina, the ball this time has rather hit too close to home.

The current ruling party AL’s leader Sheikh Hasina favored many Indian based policies and investments of mutual benefits by neglecting many serious issues of Bangladesh which may destroy Bangladesh in future as a whole such as water management issues. The pro-Indian stance of current ruling party may affect its respect and strength in next forthcoming elections as it seemed not to follow the pro-Bangladeshi policies which could lead to grow Bangladesh from under developing to developed state which has its own separate identity in international relations. Moreover the democratic values and the policy objective set by Bangabandu are also being demolished and the sovereignty of the state is at risk. Bangladesh needs a very loyal leadership in coming elections so that it could restore the policies of Bangabandu, the father of nation, and Islamic values and principles which have been remained a key importance in Mujeeb ur Rehman leadership and BNP’s leadership as well.