Analysts say the anger that pushed Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from power is rooted in deep economic distress felt by the majority of people in the country, as well as the perception that while they suffered, the elites aligned with Hasina prospered.
Protesters try to demolish a large statue of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of Bangladesh leader Sheikh Hasina, after she resigned as Prime Minister, in Dhaka, Bangladesh , Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. Protesters celebrate at the Parliament House premise after news of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s resignation, in Dhaka, Bangladesh , Monday, Aug. 5, 2024.
“It created a deep-seated resentment against the government,” said Ali Riaz, an expert on Bangladeshi politics who teaches political science at Illinois State University.— when crowds ransacked her official residence, her party offices and a museum to her father while she fled to India in a helicopter — capped weeks of protests that began with discontent over a quota system for allocating government jobs that critics said favored those with connections to Hasina’s party.
Eighteen million young people — almost a fifth of the population — are not working or in school, according to Chietigj Bajpaee, who researches South Asia at the Chatham House think tank. And the fact that the allocation of government jobs was at the center of the initial protests is no coincidence: They were seen as most stable and high-paying, revealing the widespread insecurity that persisted.
The economic successes were “inflated to justify her rule, and to try and push development as an alternative to democracy,” Riaz said, adding that allegations of vote-rigging and a boycott by the main opposition parties in the past three elections contributed to a sense that she lacked legitimacy.“Everyone is celebrating,” shouted Juairia Karim, a student, as she rejoiced with others in the streets Monday. “This has to be a historical day.
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