Bangladesh is Burning! _ Sheikh Hasina called a Dictator _ What's Happening _ Dh
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00:00Schools and colleges across the country have been shut down.
00:04And the Bangladesh government has suspended mobile internet services.
00:12Such low-level arguments don't suit a Prime Minister.
00:16Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is now being called a dictator.
00:23Namaskar, friends.
00:24Last month, a large number of students protested on the streets in Bangladesh.
00:29Initially, these protests were peaceful.
00:31But now, the situation has taken a very scary and violent turn.
00:35A military curfew has now been declared in Bangladesh.
00:46Schools and colleges across the country have been shut down.
00:49And the Bangladesh government has suspended mobile internet services.
00:53At least 150 people have died in these violent clashes.
00:56And thousands have been injured.
00:58Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is now being called a dictator.
01:04What is the reason behind all this?
01:06Let's understand this situation in detail in today's video.
01:16The direct reason behind these protests is reservation.
01:20The youth of Bangladesh is protesting against their government's quota system.
01:23According to the quota system, 56% of jobs in the public sector of Bangladesh are reserved for different sections of society.
01:31This means that only 44% of jobs can be earned on the basis of merit.
01:37This system is quite different from India because the majority reservation is not based on caste but on the basis of freedom fighters.
01:44To understand this better, we have to go into the history of Bangladesh.
01:47Before independence, as you know, Bangladesh used to be a part of Pakistan.
01:51At that time, it was called East Pakistan.
01:54And today's Pakistan was called West Pakistan.
01:57At that time, there was social discrimination against East Pakistan.
02:01The majority of people here spoke Bengali and less than 10% of them spoke Urdu.
02:07But still, West Pakistan imposed Urdu on East Pakistan.
02:11Apart from this, there was economic discrimination.
02:1459% of the country's exports came from East Pakistan but only 25% of industrial investments went to East Pakistan.
02:21In November 1970, when Bhola cyclone hit, an estimated 3 lakh people died in East Pakistan.
02:27One of the deadliest tropical cyclones of the last century.
02:39But West Pakistan did not make much effort to provide relief to the people here.
02:44And not only this, there was political discrimination as well.
02:46In the 1970 elections, East Pakistan had 162 seats and West Pakistan had 138 seats.
02:53In West Pakistan, people voted for different political parties.
02:56But in East Pakistan, the overwhelming majority votes went to the Awami League Party.
03:01Which was being led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
03:04The result of this election result was that the Awami League governs both East and West Pakistan.
03:09But West Pakistan's military did not want this at all.
03:12At that time, Pakistan's military commander-in-chief Yahya Khan refused to accept this election result.
03:18Martial law was imposed on East Pakistan and in response, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman carried out a civil disobedience movement as a protest.
03:30At the same time, the military of West Pakistan tortured the people of East Pakistan on a large scale.
03:35Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested and lakhs of people were killed.
03:38There was a genocide in East Pakistan.
03:41Approximately 1 crore people had to take refuge in India.
03:44Approximately 50% of the population of East Pakistan was internally displaced because of this.
03:52It was only after this that we saw the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971.
03:57This was the same war where India helped and gave freedom to Bangladesh under the prime ministership of Indira Gandhi.
04:08India will be called Bangladesh, the land of the Bengalis.
04:11The people who fought for freedom in East Pakistan, because of whom Bangladesh became a free country.
04:17These were the freedom fighters.
04:19These freedom fighters are relevant in today's situation because of this quota system.
04:23Because friends, in this quota system of Bangladesh, 30% of the jobs have been reserved for the descendants of freedom fighters.
04:30Apart from this, there are some other reservations like 10% for women, 10% for backward districts.
04:355% reservation is for ethnic minorities and 1% reservation is for people who have physical disabilities.
04:43If you add up all these numbers, a total of 56% reservation is made.
04:47But out of the majority share 56%, 30% is the quota of freedom fighters.
04:53Look at this article.
04:55A student of 3rd year International Relations at Dhaka University, Fahim Faruqi, who is also a protester.
05:00He says that this protest is basically for the reformation of the quota system.
05:04Protesters want that apart from the reservation of ethnic minorities and physical disabilities, all other reservations should be removed by the government.
05:13Here, this reservation of freedom fighters is the most interesting because it was started in 1972.
05:18Just a year after getting freedom.
05:20Their Ministry of Cabinet Services issued an order that year that there should be a quota for freedom fighters.
05:25Those who put their lives at risk, those who fought to get their country free, 30% jobs should be reserved for them.
05:33It should be noted that this was applicable only for freedom fighters.
05:37Later, in 1997, this quota was extended so that this reservation should be given for the children of freedom fighters.
05:44And in 2010, it was said that this reservation should be given for the children of freedom fighters.
05:48Although, the exact quota kept changing for other categories over the years.
05:52But in the end, the total percentage reached up to 56%.
05:56After the decision of 2010, there was a big movement against this quota system in Bangladesh in 2012-13.
06:03Like UPSC in India, Union Public Service Commission exam.
06:07Similarly, there is BPSC exam in Bangladesh.
06:09Bangladesh Public Service Commission.
06:11Approximately 400,000 graduates compete for 3000 civil service jobs every year in Bangladesh.
06:17The situation is very bad and there is a severe shortage of jobs.
06:19In February 2018, Bangladesh Sadharan Chhatra Adhikar Sanrakshan Parishad demanded reforms in Bangladesh Government Services.
06:27Even at that time, clashes were seen between those students who were against it and those students who were pro-quota.
06:31But due to pressure, in October 2018, the government of Bangladesh issued a circular
06:37that this quota system will be removed for first class and second class jobs.
06:41The matter would have ended here but in 2021, 7 children of some freedom fighters
06:46filed a petition in the High Court against the removal of this quota system.
06:49And on 5th June 2024, i.e. last month, the High Court decides that what the petitioners are saying is right.
06:56The government circular is declared illegal and the quota system is reintroduced.
07:02This was the reason that protests erupted all over the country.
07:11The students protesting say that this quota is unconstitutional.
07:15It was not written anywhere in the original constitution that the next generation of freedom fighters should also be given a job reservation.
07:21And anyway, what was the use of this?
07:23It is understandable that freedom fighters should be given a job reservation because they had struggled to give freedom to the country.
07:28But even their grandchildren are being given a reservation just because their grandparents were freedom fighters.
07:34But the matter does not end here.
07:36Corruption has also been accused in this reservation.
07:38Actually, who will decide who is a freedom fighter and who is not a freedom fighter?
07:43The government has given this responsibility to itself that the government will decide who will be the freedom fighter.
07:47For the past 15 years, the ruling party has been the Awami League and the Prime Minister has been Sheikh Hasina.
07:53This is the same political party that had struggled to give freedom to Bangladesh.
07:58The protesters say that the reservation of freedom fighters disproportionately benefits the people of the Awami League.
08:05The names of the people who have been included in the list of freedom fighters, at least 60,000 objections have been raised on those names.
08:12And these objections have not been resolved by the government.
08:15On July 10, this matter reaches the Supreme Court and the government goes to the Supreme Court to appeal against the decision of the High Court.
08:22The Supreme Court stops the decision of the High Court, but the protests do not stop.
08:27Apart from students and teachers, the opposition parties of Bangladesh also get involved in this.
08:31Like the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
08:33More than 7,000 paramilitary troops are called to confront the protesters.
08:38The police use tear gas, rubber bullets and sound grenades here.
08:42A statement from the Secretary General of the United Nations also comes that the government should not use any threats and violence against the demonstrators.
08:50Apart from this, there is also a clash between the protesters and the Bangladesh Student League, which is the student wing of the Awami League party.
08:58Both sides blame each other.
09:00The government's law minister says that the government is ready to talk to the protesters.
09:05It is said that an early hearing is being tried in the Supreme Court so that a decision is made as soon as possible.
09:10Outside Dhaka University, students shout that we will not let our brothers' blood be wasted.
09:18The government comes under pressure and also forms a Judicial Probe Committee to investigate the incidents of violence.
09:25The Secretary General of the Awami League says that the government will not interfere in the quotas.
09:29The decision of the Supreme Court should be waited for.
09:32But the main group of protesters, Students Against Discrimination, doubts the government's intentions.
09:37They say that the Prime Minister did not say a word about the murders committed by the activists of their party.
09:43In this tense situation, the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also gives very irresponsible remarks.
09:48She twists the facts and says that why do the protesters hate the Freedom Fighters so much?
09:53If the grandchildren of the Freedom Fighters do not get the benefits of reservation, will the grandchildren of the volunteers be given benefits?
09:59Not only the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, but also his Social Welfare Minister Dipu Moni and State Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Muhammad Ali Arafat, give similar statements about Razakar.
10:11What is Razakar?
10:13Razakar is a Persian word which means volunteer or helper.
10:17But in the war of 1971, Razakar Bahini was a paramilitary group which was actually supporting the army of West Pakistan.
10:24On the other hand, Mukti Bahini was fighting for Bangladesh's freedom.
10:27In this Razakar Bahini, there were about 50,000 people who supported the army of West Pakistan and encouraged or participated in the atrocities committed on the people of East Pakistan.
10:38In 1973, when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's government was formed, he introduced the International Crimes Tribunal Act to find and punish these volunteers.
10:48Anthropologist Nayanika Mukherjee notes that about 37,000 volunteers were identified.
10:53About 26,000 of them were pardoned by the government and the rest were punished.
10:59Either they were put in jail or their trial was still going on.
11:02Some trials were so long that even in 2022, six members of Razakar Bahini were sentenced to death for crimes against humanity.
11:10So you can understand the point here, friends.
11:13In Bangladesh, Razakar means traitor, anti-national, traitor.
11:17And if someone is protesting against the government, does it make sense to call them a traitor?
11:21It doesn't make any sense.
11:24It's the same old strategy that if the government doesn't like people protesting against the government, then declare them a traitor.
11:30But the truth is, as American author and activist Edward Abbey had written,
11:35A patriot must be ready to defend his country against his government.
11:39A true patriot defends his country against his government.
11:43Democracy doesn't just mean going to vote once in five years.
11:46Democracy is a dynamic system where people should be politically aware.
11:52People should hold the government accountable again and again.
11:55They should keep checking whether the government is doing the right thing or not.
11:58And they should stand against the government when it is needed.
12:01Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's comment on the protesters is a clear-cut example of strawman fallacy.
12:07It means that you are presenting someone else's argument in a wrong way.
12:12If the protesters say that they are against the reservation which is being given to freedom fighters' grandsons and granddaughters,
12:18it means that they are disrespecting the freedom fighters.
12:22When Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government removed this reservation in 2018,
12:27were they also disrespecting the freedom fighters?
12:30Such a low-level argument doesn't suit a Prime Minister.
12:34I request Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina,
12:37The demands of the protesters are not unreasonable.
12:39But now, let's talk about the nonsense of our Indian media reporters.
12:44Sudhir Chaudhary has called these students' protests as foreign-funded.
12:49He said that America and other Western countries are behind this.
13:04An infographic states that there is a 10% reservation for the residents of developed districts.
13:09Developed means developing.
13:13Whereas Bangladesh has given 10% quota for the residents of backward districts.
13:17Sudhir says that some students of West Bengal are supporting these protests.
13:21And these students are demanding reservation in their country.
13:24How is this possible?
13:40I don't understand whether the reasoning power of so-called reporters like Sudhir Chaudhary is really so weak
13:47or they deliberately mislead the public.
13:49First, they themselves tell in their program that the reservation in India is on the basis of caste.
13:54Whereas in Bangladesh, reservation is on the basis of other criteria.
14:02Then what is the sense of making this comparison?
14:04In India, reservation is given to so-called lower caste people against whom there has been historical discrimination.
14:10But not only historically, but even today, we are witnessing caste atrocities.
14:15In Rajasthan, a Dalit named Jitendra Pal Meghwal was killed just because he had a moustache.
14:21See this news article on the website of Aaj Tak.
14:23In Gujarat, a Dalit groom was not allowed to ride a horse.
14:26He was killed while tying the turban of the groom's family.
14:29An 8-year-old boy touched a bucket of water and he was beaten.
14:32And where did this happen? In school.
14:35Sikh religion started on the principles of egalitarianism.
14:38That is, everyone is equal, end casteism.
14:40But today, in Punjab, for Dalit Sikhs, separate gurudwaras can be seen.
14:44And according to the privileged blind journalists, casteism does not exist in the country.
14:49According to them, there is no need for positive affirmative action like reservation.
14:53Everything is fine.
14:55I will tell them one thing, why don't they talk about ending casteism?
14:58Why don't they ever talk about ending caste-based crime?
15:00These ads that are printed in newspapers,
15:03they want a Brahmin girl, Rajput girl, Jat, Baniya.
15:06Why don't these caste-based matrimonial advertisements be stopped?
15:10Look at this matrimonial ad.
15:12Here it is written that there is no restriction on caste.
15:14But SC, ST, OBC should not be there.
15:17The day you end this casteism, the day the caste reservation will automatically end.
15:21But this can only be expected from the leftist journalists
15:24that they compare India's caste reservation with Bangladesh's Freedom Fighters Reservation.
15:27The reservation in India is to bring socially and economically deprived classes to the same level.
15:34But the reservation given to the descendants of the Freedom Fighters in Bangladesh
15:38is not a separate ethnic minority.
15:41There has been no atrocity against them for thousands of years.
15:44In fact, it is a socially respected section of the country.
15:47If any of them is economically weak,
15:49then 5-10% EWS quota can be given to them.
15:52On 21st July, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh also said
15:55that the quota of the descendants of the Freedom Fighters should be reduced to 5%
16:01and the quota of other ethnic minorities, transgenders and disabled people should be reduced to 2%.
16:06So a total of 7% reservation will be there.
16:09Now I personally believe that the protests against their reservation in Bangladesh are just a symptom.
16:14The real disease here is unemployment.
16:17And just like India, unemployment has also become a very big problem in Bangladesh.
16:22Public Administration Minister Farhad Hussain told the Parliament in February
16:27that more than 5 lakh jobs were vacant in their country.
16:30Even if they are filled up, it will not be enough.
16:32The data of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics shows
16:35that 18-19 lakh young people join the job market every year.
16:39The country has a population of 17 crore people.
16:41Out of that, the working population is around two-thirds, i.e. around 11 crore.
16:45Out of these 11 crore people, 3 crore people are unemployed.
16:49The economy in Bangladesh is also in a bad state.
16:52The foreign exchange reserves of the country are very low.
16:55In 2022, Bangladesh asked for help from the International Monetary Fund
16:58to rebuild its foreign exchange reserves.
17:01Recently, a plan was also launched to take a loan of 5 billion dollars from China.
17:06Now that is a different issue in itself
17:08that whenever a country takes a loan from China, the problem is never solved.
17:12In fact, a new problem is created.
17:14China's debt diplomacy, which was seen with Sri Lanka.
17:18The inflation rate is also very high, at 9%.
17:21People's expenses are increasing and people do not have jobs.
17:24So, improving the reservation system is just the first step.
17:27If you want to find a solution here in the long term,
17:30then the government will have to focus on creating jobs.
17:33And apart from these economic difficulties,
17:35questions have also been raised about Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's political moves.
17:38In January, he won his fourth consecutive term,
17:41but he was accused of being an outsider of the electoral regime.
17:45In this protest, posters and slogans were also seen
17:48calling him a dictator.
17:50Like this slogan,
17:57This means, who am I and who are you?
18:00Who said this?
18:03It is hoped that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
18:05will be able to understand the problems of his country's people
18:07and will be able to take a positive approach here.
18:09If you liked this video,
18:11then I have made a detailed video on the entire history of Bangladesh
18:13on what exactly happened in the war of 1971.
18:16You can click here to watch it.