The tragedy of Sheikh Hasina
By Justice Katju
There is a Sanskrit shloka which says :
” जानामि नागेश तव प्रभावम्
कण्ठस्थितः गर्जसि शंकरस्य
स्थानम् प्रधानम् न च बलम प्रधानम्
द्वारस्थितः कोअपि न सिंघः
” Jaanami Nagesh tava prabhaavam
Kanthasthitah garjasi Shankarasya
Sthaanam pradhanam na cha balam pradhanam
Dwarasthitah ko api na Singhah ? “
i.e.
” O King of the Serpents, I know your powers
You are hissing at me because you are on the neck of Lord Shiva
The position one occupies is important, not one’s own strength
At one’s own door, who is not a Lion ? “
Evidently, Sheikh Hasina, former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, and now a fugitive, never heard of this shloka, and even if she had heard it, would have brushed it aside as nonsense.
Was she not the anointed Empress of Bangladesh, destined to rule like an Empress for life ? Was she not the daughter of ‘Bangabandhu’ Mujibur Rehman, the Father and creator of Bangladesh, and thus belonging to a royal dynasty ( as there is in India ) ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikh_Mujibur_Rahman
Hasina’s tenure as the longest-serving female head of government in Bangladesh was marked by the use of security forces, including the notorious Rapid Action Battalion paramilitary, which she was accused of using to abduct, and even kill, opposition members and dissenters, and allegedly rig the elections.
Politically-motivated arrests, disappearances, extra-judicial killings and other abuses arose drastically under Hasina.
In January she won an unprecedented fourth term as PM in an election widely decried by critics as being a sham and boycotted by the main opposition.
After coming to power in 2009 through a free, fair, and credible election, she subsequently presided over largely non-participative and allegedly rigged polls on three occasions — 2014, 2018, and 2024. She took control of all state institutions, the judiciary, bureaucracy, police, etc, and started regarding herself invincible, her hold on power complete, like a dictator.
But in a shocking turn of events, Hasina resigned on Monday, bringing an abrupt end to her 15-year reign. What began as peaceful student demonstrations quickly evolved into a nationwide movement, exposing the deep-seated discontent with Hasina’s increasingly authoritarian rule and the unchecked corruption, nepotism, and high-handedness that overshadowed whatever economic and development successes she flaunted, both at home and abroad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye4qYT8r_24://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOlIPN8xSLM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbPVHEx_EM4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf5Z8GT0AH0
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9033zpv0nvo
Hasina’s Waterloo came when she branded students agitating against the job reservations as ‘razakars’ ( quislings ) and terrorists, and ordered the police to shoot at the agitators
https://www.aol.com/bangladesh-prime-minister-sheikh-hasina-102900624.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8vdd4venj7o
Now like Batista, Idi Amin, Nguyen Van Thieu, and the French emigres during the French Revolution, Sheikh Hasina has fled the country, probably heading to England ( via India ), where she must have stacked up billions of dollars worth assets, thus avoiding the fate of Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother Nhu, Patrice Lumumba, Najibullah and Hafizullah Amin, and Mussolini and his mistress
Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus has called the turn of events a ‘second liberation of Bangladesh’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf-VP6OhAEU
https://www.facebook.com/552028175/videos/883398283632375
Time alone can tell Bangladesh’s future
